Levels
by The Other Side of Darkness
Summary: AU. Taylor triggers as a Thinker. It makes her the strongest cape. Ever. Changed the Rating to M at behest of a reviewer, just to be safe. Rewrite begins in Chapter Sixteen.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Worm. I do not own DBZ.

Chapter One: Over Two Hundred

Taylor Hebert was gonna be a hero. She was going to be the strongest hero.

Scratch that, she was just straight going to be the strongest, _ever_ , bar none.

Why?

Because she triggered with a particular Thinker ability that lead to some serious Trump bullshit.

Taylor understood movement, all kinds of movement. If she had the anatomy for it, she could immediately copy what she saw, perfectly.

She discovered it in the hospital. The doctor signed a document directly in front of her, and suddenly, like a switch was flipped, she understood perfectly how to sign any document she needed to with his name.

And she was disappointed almost to the point of tears. She had finally triggered and the only thing she could do with it was forge signatures. That was about as useful to being a hero as being able to defecate in different colors.

It was a week later, when she was at home, catching up on the homework she had missed, that she discovered that there was more to it than that.

A news report came on about a new dojo that was opening in New York. The master there offered one month of free lessons to anyone who signed up in the first week. It then went on to show the man practicing his art.

Somebody hit the switch again, and Taylor knew kung fu. Southern Preying Mantis Style, to be precise. She nearly jumped to her feet, her jaw hanging open. Knowing that her father, Danny, wouldn't be home for a good while, she set about putting into practice what she now knew.

She was slow and weak, but her form was perfect. And she knew, without a doubt in her mind, that if she kept it up, she wouldn't be slow and weak for long.

The next day she went to the library and looked up videos for every martial art she could find online. She spent nearly six hours there, just memorizing the styles.

By the time she left the library, Taylor knew more styles than any normal person could possibly learn without the aide of bullshit Thinker powers. She went home and thought about what she needed to do to get the most out of her seriously awesome power. She wasn't dumb enough to think that, just by learning every martial art there was, she would be able to take out the big leaguers around her town, let alone the Endbringers, but she could make a difference on the street level, if she put her mind to it.

The Sunday before her return to school, she started on a workout routine that emphasized speed and flexibility. She knew she would never be one of the bulky muscular types. She honestly didn't even want that. She wanted to be able to hit hard enough to put down the average street punk, and not much more.

The Monday of her return, her tormentors, the troublesome trio, started right in on her. Madison kept to her usual childish pranks, Sophia would roughly push her or trip her, and Emma would tear into her psyche with secrets that had been shared in good faith, years ago.

It was actually harder to take the abuse and keep moving than it would have been to break any of them in two. Taylor may not be strong and fast yet, but she knew each of her many, _many_ , styles so intimately that it would make up for a lot of her missing fitness. THe next time Sophia tripped her down the stairs, it would be easier than you could imagine for her to make the girl break her own ankle in a way that would hamper her track running ability for the rest of her life.

Still, the moment that happened, she knew that the system would put her on the wrong side of the punishment. So she held back, ignored the treatment, and went about her own business.

For three months this continued. Her new training regime was all about improving her fitness. She didn't have to spend any time even practicing her martial arts. They had become a core part of her the moment she saw them. That gave her plenty of time to spend on getting in shape.

In just two months whatever slight pudge she might have had around her middle disappeared quicker than a mob witness. By the third, she was actually beginning to show some rather impressive muscle definition.

That was when something so stupid happened, she could still hardly believe it.

It had been a long day, dodging Sophia's infantile trips and pushes, and she needed to let off some real steam. So, that in mind, she made herself a sandwich, popped a soda, and sat down to watch some classic cartoons. Bugs, Daffy, and Elmer had her giggling childishly as she snacked.

When it came to an end, she was about to turn off the TV when a show started up that she usually wouldn't have an interest in, one of those old Japanese cartoons. The reason she didn't was because of the beginning sequence, a recap of the events in the last few episodes.

While she had been watching the ACME cartoons, her power had informed exactly how most of everything they did was impossible for her. The moment that the anime, TPC or some such, it told her that she could do everything she was currently seeing.

Even the Ki and Chi manipulation.

"No fucking way…" she breathed out.

Two hours later, Danny came home from work, the problems of the world weighing heavily on his shoulders. He dropped his keys on the counter, filled a cup with coffee and turned around to see his daughter grinning like a loon.

"Taylor?" he almost stuttered, "Is… is everything alright?" He hated to admit it, but his daughter didn't have much reason to be happy in the last three years. First, her mother died in a car crash, then, just when she was beginning to recover, she pulled back into her shell, deeper than ever. Even stopped hanging out with her best friend, Emma. Then, what with the locker a few months ago, it looked like the world was well on it's way to chewing his daughter up and spitting her out, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"I'm gonna be just fine," she said, still grinning, "In fact, I'm gonna be a god."

She didn't bother explaining that, instead, closing her eyes and focusing as hard as she could. She took what was widely known as the horse stance, legs spread to shoulder width and her fists at her sides, and regulated her breathing. It took so much effort, in fact of point that sweat began to breakout all across her body.

"Taylor, wha-"

Just as Danny began to ask his question, he noticed it. His daughter, his baby girl, the last piece of his beloved wife, was emitting a bright red light from all over. Her entire body hummed with it. Small bits of dirt and dust swirled around her and her long, brown hair began to whip about in an unfelt wind.

After a few seconds, the light receded back into her body and the girl collapsed to her knees, breathing in shuddering breaths. She was also smiling again, even bigger than when he first saw her.

"Like I said," Taylor said, "I'm going to be a god."

It took a lot of fast talk for Taylor to convince her dad not to call someone about his little girl's god complex. In the end it took a full explanation.

And, unfortunately for the man, she didn't leave a thing out of it. Everything that had happened to her, leading up to the locker and then the events after it. The man was so furious he was literally shaking.

"Dad," Taylor said, smiling, laying her hand over his, "It's okay."

"How?" He nearly growled at her, glaring at the table to keep from accidentally directing his overpowering rage at the girl, "In what fucked up world is this okay, Taylor?"

"This one," she said, not losing her ear to ear grin, "Because of what they did, I'm gonna be stronger than anyone ever was. All it will take is time. Let me explain."

He looked up at her, his temper barely waning, but seeing her smile, he nodded.

"Right then. Ki is the power of the self. Chi is the power of the universe," she picked up a pan and, focusing for a moment, she ripped it in half, like so much paper, "That was Ki. It strengthens the body. makes it tougher, faster, stronger. It can never be used outside of the body," her focus narrowed again and after a few seconds a small mote of light appeared in the palm of her hand, "Chi is, like I said, the energy of all life. Think of it like excess. Whatever Ki you don't use, miniscule amounts that couldn't power a two watt battery, escape into the air. By itself, it's nothing. But when you add that to the excess energy of every living thing in every corner of the universe, it creates an invisible cloud of energy that is endless in its potential. Because a very small part of it is naturally yours, you can use some of it for yourself. In that anime they use it to great effect. I'm going to follow that example." Her smile couldn't be more winning if she tried.

Danny looked at her, then at the mote of light in her hand. He had to say, if she could do half of what the characters in that anime could, she'd be fine, he knew. Didn't mean he wanted her to be in danger, though.

"And I'm not even gonna jump on this right away," Taylor went on to say, "My Ki determines how much Chi I can manipulate. I'll need time to build up my reserves and make it so I can undoubtedly handle myself here. It'll take…" she thought about it for a moment, estimating figures in her head, "Four. Four months and I'll be ready to be a hero."

Danny hated that it would be so soon, but she had obviously very seriously considered what she was doing. She could already rip through metal with a little effort. He couldn't imagine what she could do when she put her mind to it.

"What about the bullying?" he asked finally. Even with superpowers, that was still a problem. He really didn't want his daughter to go to prison for smearing her tormentors across a hallway.

Taylor's smile, if anything, got even wider, "They can't touch me anymore. Seriously. Nothing they can do can hurt me. Ki on, I can take a baseball bat to the chest and barely have a bruise for the trying."

Danny sighed, shook his head and turned away from the girl. He took a couple of deep breaths.

"Four months," he said, turning back to her, "Four months, no sooner. You don't go fighting crime on the weekends, you see a mugging you call the cops. Four months straight and I'll call up the Protectorate myself, if that's what you want. Deal?"

The teen nodded, "Deal." They shook on it.

The next day at school, feeling more sure of her ability to withstand anything the three bitches threw at her, she decided to eat in the cafeteria for the first time in a year. Sack lunch in hand she headed towards a table with a spectacular view of Brockton Bay.

As she moved past the students lining up to get trays she noticed a well toned black leg stick itself in her path at the last possible moment. At this point she had three options.

A, ignore it, step over the leg, keep going.

B, go in, Ki on, and break the bitch's leg by walking through it.

C, pretend to trip, get back up, keep heading to her desired table.

The first would cause Sophia to try something else. Not to say that tripping would actually cause the psycho to leave her alone for the rest of the lunch period, let alone the rest of the day, but it wouldn't cause her to escalate things immediately. The second would just bring the PRT down on her head for Assault With a Parahuman Ability. The Birdcage would be immediately in her future. The third was just a momentary stop gap.

Seeing the faculty purposefully turn away from the scene, literally ignoring what was about to happen, she scowled. If only she could make them pay attention. If only there was some way to make sure they didn't ignore it. If only.

Inspiration struck.

Taylor proceeded forward, pretending not to notice Sophia's leg in her path. She lost her balance, flinging her arms out, her sack lunch flying high into the air. Already she could hear a couple chuckles from Sophia's minions.

But instead of smashing face first into the ground, the teen tumbled into a roll. Her arms still out she snagged a folding chair of a nearby rack on her second roll. On the third, seemingly by accident, her foot kicked against on of the legs of the chair, unfolding it. On her fourth tumble, she dropped her bum into the chair and skidded backwards a few feet.

Looking around, apparently confused, she found herself right at the table she meant to occupy. Seeing that she wasn't hurt, she shrugged, her hands out to her sides. Her lunch, thrown high into the air at the beginning of this little display, fell into her palm right then, still perfectly intact.

She opened her eyes, a smirk on her face as she looked directly at Sophia. And winked.

A few seconds later there was laughter. Not derisive and cruel, though some was mocking. Most of it, however was in genuine amusement.

The trio, and Sophia Hess in particular, looked to be bristling with annoyance, if not rage.

But, just like Taylor had hoped, her ridiculous tumbling brought attention from the faculty. They couldn't act against her with that kind of scrutiny. At least, not right away.

Later that same day, in PE, Sophia tried to shoulder check her on the running track. Taylor only felt the barest pressure from the hit before she twirled away, turning it into a perfect pirouette. In dodgeball she dodged in the most inconspicuous ways. First, just as someone threw the ball at her, she ducked down to retie her left shoe. Then she turned away at the last second, thinking the coach had called her name. It went on like that until, for a final gambit, Taylor picked up a ball and made a show of going for a throw at Emma. Almost immediately, three balls were in the air, heading right for her face.

Taylor took a step forward, stepped on another stray ball and went head over heels, just in time for the three balls to pass her by without even skimming her. It also had the added effect of launching the ball she had tripped on right at a stunned Emma. In the middle of her flip, she also lost hold of the ball she'd aimed at her friend and it ended up hitting Sophia in the stomach.

The flip concluded with Taylor landing on her feet again, not a hair out of place and feigning confusion.

"Hess! Barnes! You're out!" the coach called. He was one of the few people employed at Winslow High that didn't take sides. Ever. He didn't care about the bullying, he just encouraged people to fight back instead.

Taylor waved at the two, putting her hand in perfect position to catch another ball thrown by Madison, knocking her out of the game as well.

And so it went. Sophia would try to accost her between classes, she'd turn it into a spectacle worthy of a professional circus without taking any damage. It was enough to get a girl to smile.

"The fuck are you grinning about, Hebert?!" Sophia demanded, her glare turning her otherwise pretty face into something hideous.

The teen blinked at that, then grinned wider, "I'm grinning because you just lost the game, Hess," she pulled her backpack over her shoulders, "Live long and prosper."

If the black girl had been mad before, she was now absolutely livid. It looked like the girl was going to leap at her and rip her throat out if given half the chance.

Emma's hand on her shoulder reined her in and Taylor began to feel panic. She could completely ignore Madison, she could make a show out of Sophia's brutal attacks, but what could she do against the worst of her tormentors?

Couldn't punch her. Would get in trouble for that. Couldn't ignore her. The bitch knew all of Taylor's weaknesses too well for that. The only thing she could do was try to think of things that made her happy.

Emma opened her mouth to gouge out pieces of her former friends soul.

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens," Taylor started to say quietly, "Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens," she started to sing just under her breath.

"What are you-?"

"Brown paper packages tied up with strings," the skinny girl sang louder, interrupting the redhead, "These are a few of my favorite things!"

"You are such a frea-!"

"Cream colored ponies and crisp apple Streudels!" Taylor ratched the volume up to seven, bringing the attention of everyone in the hall down on them, "Doobells and sleigh bells and Schnitzel with noodles! Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings! These are a few of my favorite things!"

"Where do you-?!" Emma tried to step forward and stop Taylor from leaving, but she just sang louder, still.

"GIRLS IN WHITE DRESSES WITH BLUE SATIN SASHES! SNOWFLAKES THAT STAY ON MY NOSE AND EYELASHES! SILVER WHITE WINTERS THAT MELT INTO SPRINGS! THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVOriTE THINGS!" Turning away, she heard Sophia shout incoherently and slam her fist into a locker, "WHEN THE DOG BITES, WHEN THE BEE STINGS, WHEN I'M FEELING SAD, I SIMPLY REMEMBER MY FAVORITE THINGS, AND THEN I DON'T FEEL SO BAD!" She continued walking and singing, her smile brighter and wider than when she discovered the full scope of her powers.

Victory was hers.


	2. Chapter 2 Dragon of Kyushu

So, before I get into this chapter, allow me to give you the foreword that I maybe could have put on the first chapter.

Number one: I have given this story the title 'Levels' for two reason. The first is the 'power levels' of the DBZ characters, in the beginning, gave us an estimable base for how ridiculously over powered they were on any given day. Hercule, the 'strongest man on Earth' had a power level just over one hundred. Frieza had a power level over one million in his second form, nearly doubling his primary form. Following that math, by the time he reached final form, the evil femmy gecko was boasting something along the lines of four million. They stopped using it at that point, so I shudder to even think about the other monsters they fought, but think of this. Raditz, the weakest of the saiyans, with a power of fifteen hundred, could move faster than the speed of light. He could have, very easily, destroyed the Earth, but was instead trying to recruit Goku.

Fifteen hundred and faster than the speed of light. That's a humongous statement right there.

Number two: I really like the video for the Aviccii song, Levels.

Three: From this point forward, to match the title, I will be posting Taylor's current power level at the bottom of each chapter that follows, along with the estimates of any major enemies she fights.

Since I didn't do it last chapter; Taylor's Power Level: 145

On with the show.

Chapter Two: Dragon of Kyushu

Taylor stood on a rooftop, in the middle of summer break, wearing her Hero costume. It was pretty simple, all told. An orange hoodie with short sleeves, a black body suit beneath that, blue jean hip huggers, a pair of normal running shoes, and a black mask with goggles in the eyes that had a pair of her glasses lenses in them. On the back of the hoodie was a black and white sigil depicting a butterfly.

It wasn't much, but it was hers and it was easy to replace.

The last four months had been, in a word, boring. She trained, she expanded her energy stores, she ignored her bullies, she did her school work.

By the end of the first week of dealing with Emma by singing loudly, she ran out of songs from musicals and had to start using obscure tunes from the internet. The bitch just wouldn't give it a rest. After that first day, Taylor caught the black track runner staring at her speculatively more than once, but she didn't try to hit her again, which was a pleasant surprise. By the end of the month, Sophia had completely pulled out of the bullying campaign. Madison had never even been a real problem, just a mild annoyance.

By the time school came to an end, little over a month and a half ago, Taylor was so deep into her empowerment that, Ki on, getting hit by a train would be inconvenient at worst. The thought of any of the street thugs of Brockton Bay being able to hurt her was laughable. The capes were another matter, but not an insurmountable one, by any stretch of the imagination.

School, because of all this, was about as adventurous as a well maintained golf course in Switzerland. Her grades exploded into ranges that would earn scholarships, her mood improved, and the other kids completely stopped picking on her. It was boring, but such an improvement that she would take it a thousand times over again rather than go back to the way it was..

So, halfway through summer vacation, finished with her training, she was just waiting for something big enough to happen that she could get on the PRT radar in the best possible way.

"For a city with more villains than heroes, it is ridiculously peaceful," she grumbled to herself. Sure, she had stopped seventeen muggings, two rapes, bungled a robbery and even pulled a cat out of a tree, but none of that was anything less than the average officer would do. Except the cat thing, that was just silly.

She didn't even have to focus for more than a fraction of a second before her body was covered in a red glow and she lifted into the air. The sun was setting and she was hoping that something, _anything_ , would happen after dark.

Several hours later, floating above the boardwalk, she was just about to lose hope. It seemed like, when she was finalled keyed up-she snorted at her horrible pun- there was absolutely nothing happening. She was just about to head home, around midnight, when she noticed some activity coming from one of the warehouses nearby. A gaggle of gangsters, wearing the colors of the Azn Bad Boys, poured out onto the street, followed by a large man wearing only pants and a metal face plate.

Lung, the Dragon of Kyushu. The villain that had stood toe to toe with Leviathan.

Taylor's grin nearly split her mask.

She didn't even care what they were about to do, she now had a goal. It would be more than a feather in her cap if she took him down.

She absently thanked that Japanese cartoon, DBZ, and put her fingers to her forehead, looking at the man that would be a dragon, and imagining the chain she was about to pull off.

From Lung's point of view, he was simply going about his evening, planning on killing some kids that had overstepped their bounds, when there was suddenly a skinny girl in front of him, her hand on his chest. There was a sound like a metallic twang when she appeared, and another when the scenery shifted from an abandoned neighborhood to the boat graveyard.

Next, he was kicked in the face and sent tumbling back into the hull of one of the boats by the girl and he felt his ire rising.

"You," he growled, already growing, "are dead."

"Really?" Taylor asked, smirking, though the gangster couldn't see it, "Bring it on then!"

Lung's power was what some might call a Zero State ability. He started out pretty much a normal man, aside from some regeneration and Pyrokinesis, but as the fight went on, he got stronger and tougher and bigger until he turned into a fully fledged dragon. A prolonged fight with him was never a winning prospect.

The parahuman man launched himself at the skinny girl, expecting her to teleport away and try to hit him from the side.

Instead, Taylor sent a beam of red energy into his face, sending him flying back the way he came. He groaned, but he kept ramping up, quicker than before. A tail began to sprout from the base of his spine and steel scales started to cover his body. He was already twelve feet tall and still growing. He brought flames to his hands and launched a not inconsiderable fireball at the wannabe hero.

Taylor _punched the fire_ , causing it to disrupt. Well, not really. She actually punched forward so fast, with her Ki focused strongly in her limbs, that the air pressure caused the fire to dissipate before it could reach her.

Lung launched himself at her again, several times faster, despite his size.

She kicked him in the gut, sending him flying back again.

He leapt at her again. She shot him with a an energy beam. He breathed fire. She dodged. He threw a boat at her. She caught it and threw it back.

"Come on!" she shouted at him, "This is it? This is the best that the Dragon of Kyushu has to offer? How have you survived this long?"

"G'll 'ooo!"

She waved away his threat, "Yeah, yeah, you've been saying that for the last ten minutes. I can see your underwear."

"Graaaaah!" The dragon launched into the air, beating his wings and trying to get past her, to have the high ground advantage.

"No," she moved so fast he could barely perceive it, grabbing his tail, "you," she pulled and his forward momentum stopped and he was dragged into a spin, "don't!" after a few turns she tossed him back down at the ground. The impact pushed the dragon man through three full ships and was followed up by a few more beam attacks. She knew they wouldn't be enough to completely stop him, but that really wasn't the point.

She landed back on the ground a few seconds later, still glowing with Chi. She could see the metal shifting and blasts of fire as Lung tried to escape the rubble, but she had a few seconds before that happened.

"The hell do you think you're doing?!" a man with power armor and a halberd demanded of her, stomping forward, even as he kept an eye on the shifting metal.

"Defeating Lung," Taylor answered simply, "Good evening, Armsmaster."

The registered hero almost glared at the girl from behind his visor.

"This is not a game, girl. If Lung isn't brought down soon, the collateral damage could be extensive. Countless lives could be-"

"Hey," she interrupted him, "Can he survive being eviscerated?"

"..." Armsmaster was silent for a few moments before he growled out, "Yes. Now-"

"Cool," she held up a finger, "Just a sec."

The girl blurred away so quickly that his gear had trouble realizing she had moved at all.

At that same moment, the boat rubble Lung was underneath exploded upwards with an insane amount of fire and a roar of rage so pure that it seemed to color the air red around him.

Wait, no, that was Taylor, standing beneath the thirty foot dragon, holding an energy tack far above the ones she had used so far.

" _Ruby Balle!_ " she shouted in French, shooting the attack skyward. It cut through lung like he wasn't even there. Lung froze, wheezing as his lungs and organs slowly regrew. The lack of oxygen, though, began to rob him of his consciousness and he collapsed, shrinking quickly back to his normal size. Taylor, who had moved before he fell on her, watched as he continued to shrink and regenerate. She grimaced when she noticed that the man had ripped through all of his clothing, leaving him naked.

She pointed her hand at the downed man, more energy gathering in her palm.

Armsmaster ran forward, pointing his halberd at her, "Stop!"

" _Clothes Beam!_ " she ignored him and fired. The energy struck Lung and covered him in a bright orange prisoner jumpsuit.

The girl turned to look at the Hero, who had slowed his run, "That is easily my most useful attack," she said, grinning behind her mask, her hands on her hips.

Armsmaster stalked forward, his suit making his footsteps ever heavier. He stopped a few feet away, looming over the girl, and frowning.

"Who are you?" he demanded in a growl.

"You can call me Saiyan."

-9001-

"I fucking knew it!"

Taylor, unmasked and conversing with the Wards, looked over shoulder at the teen hero that had been missing, Shadowstalker. The girl hero was also unmasked, showing the face of Sophia Hess, a frown marring her features.

"I fucking knew you triggered!" she pointed accusingly at the other teen.

"Oh," Taylor intoned, shock numbing her emotions, "Hey, Sophia..." She even managed a short wave.

Sophia, on the other hand, was angry and somewhat afraid. Hebert had triggered, obviously from the locker, and now was trying to be a hero, a Ward. If she revealed to these guys how she triggered, Hess would be in deeper trouble than she could truly understand.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Dennis, Clockblocker, asked.

"Yeah," Taylor said, turning back to the charmingly funny Striker, "She made me the strongest bitch on the planet."

"What?"

"Sophia's a bully, I triggered because of it. If I were into girls I'd actually kiss her for it," Taylor explained, waving away whatever concerns they currently had and creating whole new ones.

"Right," Dennis said slowly as every eye that didn't belong to Taylor turned towards Sophia.

The shadowy archer gulped.

A week later, with Shadowstalker on two months of monitor duty for causing a person to trigger, Taylor, Saiyan, was on the job with the other Wards.

They had received word from an anonymous source, that there was going to be an attack on Brockton Bay Central Bank. So, on a particularly rainy afternoon, Saiyan, Vista, Browbeat(an independent for the moment), Clockblocker, Gallant, and Aegis, with Glory Girl guest starring, were standing outside the only exit. They could see that the windows of the bank were completely darkened, so they didn't have a great idea of what was going on inside, but they knew enough.

Aegis, in Clockblocker's outfit, gave a brief overview, "The Undersiders are the ones robbing the bank. They normally play small time, but are notoriously difficult to catch. If you can grab one, do so. Be careful of civilians, they might try to use them as a shield."

Saiyan nodded, and began to gather her Ki.

Suddenly, the doors busted open and darkness poured out onto the street. The wards waited a moment, then civilians began pouring out of the black mist. Vista grumbled something about that playing havoc with her powers. After about fifteen civilians, the Undersiders themselves made a break for it.

Two monstrous creatures that might once be considered dogs made a B line for Clockblocker, dressed as Aegis.

"No! Go for Clockblocker!" a girl's voice shouted, followed by a whistle. The dogs veered off course and one slammed into Aegis.

"Engage!" the real time themed teen said. Immediately, Vista shortened the distance between Clock and another one of the dogs. He tagged it, causing it to freeze nearly completely. Hellhound was beyond pissed, preparing to send her remaining dogs at the Striker.

"Brutus is fine! Keep going!" the teen generating the darkness shouted.

Saiyan stepped into the path of Grue, ready to take him down when her leg twitched enough to send her off balance. She saw the one in the frilly shirt and the purple mask grin at her and salute with his scepter just as he was pulled onto the back of another monster dog.

Saiyan's eyes narrowed.

Before Regent could blink the girl he'd just used his powers on was in front of him and Tattletale. She slammed her fist down on Angelica's head, causing the giant monster dog to flip forward. With her rider's airborne, it was child's play for the Thinker to pull them down. She didn't hesitate in flicking Regent on the forehead with a Ki powered finger, knocking him out instantly.

She turned to Tattletale, "You gonna be a problem?" She held up her glowing finger, threateningly.

The villainess shook her head, staring intently at Saiyan. The hero was actually kind of freaked out about it, especially when after just a few seconds, the blonde girl's nose started to bleed. The blonde passed out, just a few moments later.

By the time Saiyan turned back to the other's Aegis was holding a cursing and snarling Hellhound down and Glory Girl had Grue by the back of his uniform, forty feet up.

"Alright!" Clockblocker said, grinning visibly, "And that's why I love being one of the good guys! Party at the Protectorate!"

"No," Aegis said grimly, "There is not. However," he turned to Saiyan, "Good job, Saiyan. You regulated yourself well and took out a threat when it became apparent. I'd call that a very successful first op." Saiyan nodded and grinned back, beneath her mask.

She had been told that the PR rep wanted a chat about her uniform. She already knew what her answer was going to be.

"That was pretty cool," Glory Girl said, coming down out of the air with her prisoner, "Hope they caught what you did to those two on video."

Saiyan rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, "I suppose it probably looked pretty cool from the outside."

-9001-

In a holding cell, several hours later, Tattletale was sitting calmly on the bed provided in the cell. Grue was in the cell next to hers and Regent and Bitch were across the way. Regent was kept on a constant IV drip and an induced coma to overcome his annoying ability and they simply ignored the darkness that Grue generated.

Tattletale simply didn't care. She was staring intently at her hand. Her power told her everything she needed to know, with the fewest clues available. What it told her about Saiyan, or more specifically, Saiyan's power, was world shaking.

Grue was pacing. Bitch was sulking in a corner. Regent kept breathing.

Tattletale just kept focusing on her hand. Her powers took her deeper and deeper into her thoughts, almost becoming meditative. It told her about how Saiyan wasn't really using her power when she hit the blonde and regent. That had been pure martial arts. On a level only seen in cartoons, but martial arts none the less.

And that glow. That completely natural glow. A glow, an energy, that anyone could use because everyone had it in them.

Purple light began to fill Tattletale's cell.

"Oh," the girl grinned wide as a fox, "This is going to be fun."

+- Chapter End

One, yes, I have completely ignored the stated timeline and molded it to my specifications.

Two, power levels for relevant characters.

Lung: 20-340

Grue-12

Regent-5

Bitch/Hellhound-9

Tattletale: 5-78

Taylor/Saiyan-560

Please, Enjoy.


	3. Chapter 3 Bomber VS Ki User

It has come to my attention that Raditz actually _could not_ move faster than the speed of light. Infact, none of the characters could, at any point in the story.

Don't care. Anime magic says they could, did and will. This is the same anime magic, by the way, that turned five minutes into several thirty minute episodes.

Power levels of the Triumvirate will be uploaded as they gain relevance.

Chapter Three: Bomber VS Ki User

Taylor sat in a rather posh office at the PRT. She had been called in that morning to talk about her costume with the local PR agent. She had a guess what this was about, especially since Dennis dropped a hint about them wanting Heroes to show parts of their faces, giving them a more human identifiability.

Taylor Hebert, Saiyan, couldn't give a fuck. The answer would be no.

"Good morning, Miss Hebert," a somewhate pudgy Asian man came in, "My name is Glenn Chambers, on lone from New York City. I am a Public Relations consultant. You have some idea what that means, yes?"

"Yes," Taylor said, "Your job is to make us friendly to the general populace. You make it worth it for them to fund us. Picture signings, appearances, public statements. You create the face of the Protectorate and the Wards that garners public support."

"Indeed. There is a bit more to it, but you have essentially hit the nail on the head," Glenn smiled at her, "So, Let's talk about your costume and title choice."

"I understand if Toei wants me to change my name, it was kind of spur of the moment," the Thinker told him.

"Actually, they want you to keep using it. The moment they heard that a cape registered with the Protectorate was calling themselves Saiyan, they started falling all over themselves to get you to keep it. From what I understand, they will be sending a representative to talk to you about a scholarship of some sort. They will probably want you to do a couple of commercials for their anime to bring back its popularity."

"Really," the girl blinked in shock, "That's… actually, that's pretty awesome," she grinned, "I Wonder if they can use some kind of special effect to make it look like I've gone super."

"Yes, well," the man said, trying to bring it back to topic, "To get back to the point, do you mind if I ask you why you chose this as your costume?" He held up a picture of her, in her usual outfit while on duty.

"Well, the hoodie is straight homage to where my strength comes from," she said, rather vaguely, "Do you know the extent of my abilities?"

"I've been given a brief," he told her, "Brute Five, Mover Three, Blaster Six."

The girl nodded, "Yeah, there's also a small amount of Thinker added to that. I think the official Ranking was Thinker Three. I get most of my techniques from DBZ. My Thinker ability lets me break it down and learn from it. The main character is always wearing a bright orange shirt with the symbol of his former master on the back. I chose the orange to match it, and put a butterfly in the place of Goku's sigil to represent a metamorphosis into something better."

Glenn seemed surprised, "That's very well thought out."

Taylor blushed a little. Even after all these months, she really wasn't used to positive reinforcement.

"The mask, however," he showed a closeup shot of her face, "We have issues with." The shot was from her power placement testing. The black material had a red hue from the _Ruby Balle_ she had been charging up to fire at one of the targets they had set up. THat plus the sinister glow coming from behind the polarized lenses of her orange goggles made for quite the intimidating sight.

"I think I know what you're going to say," she told him, "That it doesn't present an identifiable visage. That hiding one's face makes it harder to garner the support of the public."

"Yes, I was thinking something along those lines," he grinned again, thinking that the smart girl was being agreeable to the changes he wanted to implement.

"I don't care. They'll get used to it."

"What?"

Taylor crossed her arms, a sign of stubborn obstinance, "I don't curse. I don't go around in something leaves little to the imagination. I also follow every order I'm given even though I can, clearly, go out and handle the gangs of this city myself. I'm not arrogant to think I could win without breaking a sweat, or major civilian casualties, but I _could_ win. If you really want to lose me over a mask, go ahead and tell them to drop me."

"The real question is, are you willing to give up a chance to work with us, all over a mask?" Glenn tried to turn it around on her.

"Yes," she answered immediately.

Stunned, the man took a few moments to gather his wits and think about why she was so completely against showing her face.

"Look," she said, after a few moments, "When they told me that this was going to happen, I started thinking about it myself. Why do I hate the idea of showing my face so much?" she dropped her eyes to her lap for a moment before looking back at him and frowning, "I won't give you the gory details, but my trigger, as usual, was not a great time. It was preceded by a year and a half campaign, lead by my former best friend, of bullying where the point of it all seemed to be to convince me to commit suicide. Or do something else similarly caustic to my continued survival.

"And no one cared. The faculty never believed me. They actively worked against me at several points. I did the necessary paperwork for a transfer to Arcadia and the principal's secretary put it directly into the shredder," her frown was particularly focused at that admission, "When I triggered, when I found out what I could do, I came to this simple conclusion. The world didn't want me as Taylor Hebert. Fine. It doesn't get Taylor Hebert. It can have Saiyan, instead. That's all the general populace will ever get."

Glenn looked at the stony face of the girl. Before, she had been rather expressive, open. Now, she was closed off. Her emotions were buried so deep that he was sure it would take a Thinker to tell him what she was thinking.

"Right," he finally said, "The mask stays. Understood," he turned a page in his folder, "Do you have an equally significant attachment to the blue jeans?"

"No," she almost smiled, thinking about that, "What's wrong with it, though?"

"Nothing's _wrong_ with denim, per se," Chambers told her, "It's just that it give you a working class feel. Surveys show that, while they want to know that you are indeed human, they don't want to feel like they are on the as a Parahuman. They want you to be above them, better than them. They need to feel that you are infallible and certain forms of dress can give you that image. How do you feel about something like this?" He put down a drawing of several different types of pants. From something like what she would see in the anime her name came from, to what looked like power armor. Colors differed greatly between each of the choices.

"Well, for one," she said, "Don't bother making any of this. My powers can give me a copy of it. It won't be Ticker tech, but it will be easily replaceable," she browsed the pictures until she came to one that she liked more than the others, "I could do this." It was a pair of pants that were only slightly baggy, combined with what looked like a half skirt, covering her left leg down to the knee. The image wasn't colored, but the diagonal lines on the half skirt seemed to hint at it being different from the pants.

"A good choice. Thoughts on color?"

"Probably more orange," she shrugged, "Blue, or black, for this part," she tapped the hanging cloth.

"Normally I'd suggest blue, but the black would give it a more serious tone. Considering what you've said so far, I think you should go with black," he penciled in some design details, "Now, the next order of business is your first public appearance…"

The conversation then evolved into a series of mock questions she might be asked on TV. She was supposed to have a spot on a popular talk show in nearby Boston. Glenn gave her a list of questions they might ask, a list they weren't supposed to but could ask, and a list of questions that would get them pulled off the air if they asked. It wasn't likely that they would use any of the last ones, but they didn't Taylor to be ambushed by it, just in case they did.

The meeting, after dealing with her complete refusal to change her mask, was actually going well.

Until the world started shaking and thunder started booming.

Klaxons all around the PRT building started going off and a voice came over the loud speakers.

"All Protectorate and Wards members report to the main lobby for briefing and orders. All nonessential personnel fall back to safe rooms on sub basement level three. PRT officers suit up. This is not a drill."

"Gotta go," Taylor said, pulling on her mask and pointing her hand down at her legs, " _Clothes Beam!_ " She then put her fore and middle fingers against her forehead and teleported away with a metallic twang.

She reappeared instantly in the lobby, the other capes pouring in.

"What's going on?" Aegis asked,

"I don't know," Saiyan shrugged, turning to the monitor, "I'm betting Director Piggot will tell us in a moment." Indeed, after all of the capes were in the lobby, the giant screen turned on, and the obese form of Director Emily Piggot was displayed, sitting in one of the safe rooms.

"The ABB Tinker, Bakuda, has start blowing up my city," the woman said with a glare, "There isn't any rhyme or reason to it. She's going after anything that catches her fancy. She's apparently equipped Oni Lee with some of her grenades, he's using them to harass law enforcement. So far, neither one of them have targeted our headquarters, but it is only a matter of time. I want them put down. _Hard._ "

Everyone in the room nodded to her.

"Director?"

"Yes, Saiyan?" the woman asked curtly, "What is it?"

"I would place a fair bet that this is a gambit to get Lung out. Distract us, send our best out and about to chase down Oni Lee, or her bombs, while they send a team here to break him out. He hasn't been transferred to the Birdcage, yet, right?"

"That's right, and we don't have the time to move him," Piggot said.

"I don't know about getting him to the Birdcage, but if you can show me where the dropoff is, and message ahead that I'm bringing him, I can get him there," Saiyan said.

For a moment, silence.

"Are you certain?"

"Absolutely, one hundred percent."

"Very well," the woman looked to Armsmaster, "Alert Dragon of Lung's impending arrival. Miss Militia, show Saiyan the location. Everyone else, go out there and stop these criminals. If necessary, lethal force has been authorized." The screen went dark and the Protectorate and Wards broke off to get to work. Armsmaster made a brief call to Dragon through his helmet and Miss Millitia pulled Saiyan into a side room and showed her a map to the Birdcage's door, so to speak. It wasn't there, but Dragon used it as a teleporter to send them there. Rumor was that not even the prolific Tinker knew exactly where it was.

"Are you sure you can do this?" the older cape asked, genuine concern showing for the young woman.

"Yeah, it's a total cakewalk. I take him to Dragon. Come back and help beat down the ABB. Nothing could be easier," Saiyan nodded, memorizing the location she was seeing.

She was then led down to sub-basement two, where they kept their prisoners, and right to Lungs cell. The man that would be a dragon was encased in the foam that Dragon had invented to contain even superpowered individuals. Very few were the capes that could break out of it. Lung was not one of them. He flared intently at her when she came in.

"Here to release me, little girl?"

"Ha! No," Saiyan took a step forward, "I'm here to get you to the Birdcage," she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Fool," He grinned at her quite menacingly, "You think my compatriots will let you. They are working now to release me. You will not make it two blocks before I am free," his smirk showed more teeth than was usually possible, "And then I will kill you."

"Yeah, you're right," she said, "You'd get free in no time out there. Good thing we aren't even going street level," she placed her fingers against her forehead again, "You might feel a slight pinch." Lung heard a familiar twang, and then the scenery shifted radically.

What had once been the drab metallic walls of his containment cell, had become open sky and black and yellow painted lines on various surfaces. looking down, he saw that he was on what looked to be a landing pad of some kind and right nearby was one of the mechanical manifestation of the Tinker, Dragon.

"Saiyan," came the digitized voice, "You were expected. I did not know you would be hear this quickly however. Your Mover rating is not quite accurate. I will take Lung from here." Saiyan just nodded and ported back to the city, as soon as she saw that Dragon had the criminal well in hand.

She appeared in the sky above her city, still seeing many explosions going off. Men and women wearing the purple of the ABB were running about causing havoc, left and right. She could see most of the Wards and PRotectorate trying to evacuate the civilians while at the same time trying to fight off the gangsters that were causing the problem.

She kept scanning the from her place in the sky, looking for the bomb Tinker that had started this mess. After nearly two minutes, she spotted the bitch, riding around on the back of a jeep, firing at random targets with a grenade launcher.

For Bakuda, the day was going great. She was raining havoc down on all of Brockton Bay while Oni Lee went off and collected their leader. She had even set up some real doozies to go off should one of the heroes get it in their thick skulls that it would be okay to kill her. She took special joy in blowing up Empire Eighty Eight bases.

Then the world tilted. What had once been up became down and she landed roughly on the blacktop. Scrambling back to her feet, she made a grab for her grenade launcher. She got within inches of it before an orange covered leg stomped down on it, completely destroying the barrel without touching the volatile ammo cartridges.

"Who the fuck-?" she snarled, only to be hoisted up into the air by the front of her shirt.

"Bakuda, you are under arrest," Saiyan growled at her, her eyes glowing behind the goggles again.

"I don't think so, bitch!" the mad bomber bit down on Saiyan's hand. It had no effect and her teeth didn't even break the skin.

"Yeah, that's not gonna work. Want to try again?" Saiyan definitely sounded smug.

Bakuda just smirked, "Fine," she pulled a device from one of her pockets, and flipped open a panel to show a switch that she immediately put her thumb against, "You let me go, or I blow this city to hell and back. This switch activated every bomb I've got. And don't even think of killing me," she smirked wider, "I've got those same bombs set up with a dead man switch. My heart stops beating and they receive a signal to explo-Aaaaaaahh!"

At the last second, Bakuda's monologue was interrupted by a red beam of light vaporizing her arm from the elbow down. The detonator wasn't even ash. The attack even cauterized the wound so she wouldn't bleed out.

Didn't negate the pain, though.

Bakuda was still screaming when Saiyan took her to Armsmaster.

"She had a remote trigger for all the bombs. There's another one that will blow them all if she dies, so you should probably do something about that, too," the teen said before going back out there and getting back to work, stopping the violence and mitigating the damage.

-9001-

Back at the PRT HQ, the building shook with an explosion. The Undersiders looked up, three of the four wondering what was happening. Tattletale had a good guess.

After seeing Saiyan walk by, and then not come out of the cell where they were holding Lung, her power informed her that someone was going to make an attempt to free him. Bets were on Oni Lee, since he could make a quick escape if things went south.

The building shook again, and lights flickered for a moment before going out completely. They were replaced by orange emergency lights a few moments later. Just in time for the teleporting assassin to blow up the main entrance to the containment level. He glanced at the Undersiders, but moved towards the cell he knew his leader to be in with single minded purpose.

He didn't walk, he teleported. It was faster. He placed a charge against the door and started pressing the buttons for the time, when the voice of Tattletale interrupted him.

"That won't be necessary," she said, sitting on her bed calmly, "They've already moved him. I'd be surprised if he wasn't already in solitary at the Birdcage."

"You lie," the man said.

"Nope, and I can prove it," she grinned.

"How?" the man demanded.

"Get me out of this cell first. And my friends," she added, "Do that, and I can help you get Lung back."

"Tattletale, what the hell are you thinking?!" Grue growled at her, "He tried to kill us just over a week ago!"

"So," Tattletale shrugged, "Doesn't mean we can't help one another, now. Does it?" she directed that question at Oni Lee.

The man was just staring at her, his odd mask hiding his expression, but the Thinker knew that he just needed one more push and he would do it.

"Look, get me out, and to a computer," she said, trying to make it sound a little more desperate, "With this place on the emergency power, their firewalls barely have enough power to run. I can break in like that," she snapped her fingers, "Find out exactly where he is, and maybe even see about slackening the security there."

"Fine."

He pulled out smaller charges, placing them on the locking mechanisms of the cells. He stood back and let them explode. Grue, Bitch, and Tattletale walked out of their cells of their own volition, but Regent was still unconscious, so Grue grabbed him.

"Now-" Oni Lee didn't get to finish his statement, what with Tattletale's fist buried in his gut up to her wrist. There was no doubt going to be organ bruising and internal bleeding, but he should survive.

"Right, let's get the hell out of here before the heroes get back."

Bitch and Grue just nodded, going along with it for now. Questions could wait for later.

-9001-

Hours later, after finally capturing the last of the ABB that was actively causing trouble, all the branches of the Protectorate, East North East were coming back to base to get some rack. Saiyan was somewhat annoyed when she heard the Undersiders had escaped. She should have taken them with Lung.

"Don't worry about it," Miss Militia told her, "Lung was the important one. And we've got Oni Lee and Bakuda, too, now. We couldn't have done that without you. The Undersiders escaping is minor compared to all of that," she smiled then, "Besides, they're criminals. I can guarantee that they will give you another chance to catch them."

"Yeah," the teen sighed, "I suppose you're right," she stood a little straighter, then let her shoulders slumped as she yawned, "I'm gonna go home and get some sleep. When is the debriefing?"

"Tomorrow, noon. Don't be late. Piggot will not go easy on you if you are. Just ask Clockblocker," the woman seemed to be smiling at some remembered hilarity, but the scarf made it hard to tell.

"Right, I'll be early. Later," the teen teleported away.

Back in the office that she had met with the PR representative, Glenn Champers was going over the footage of the battle that had gone on that day, and Saiyan's role in it.

"I have to agree," he said under his breath, "People will learn to look at that face and know it means good things. Especially if she keeps it up with this kind of work."

-9001-

Chapter end:

So, we get a brief look into Taylor's mind. Obviously she's not just miraculously better after all that time under the authority of Winslow and the tender care of her bullies. She's in a better place, but she didn't trigger for no reason.

Now, power levels.

Bakuda- 8

Oni Lee- 70

Armsmaster- 120/200

Miss Militia- 65

Dragon- 200/500

Tattletale-100

Taylor/Saiyan-600

 **Bonus Content!**

Coil was sitting at his desk in his secret base. Thomas Calvert was sipping coffee in his kitchen. Coil prepared to go question his new pet about a few things. Thomas was preparing to go to work and make note of any of the major threats to the city.

Coil walked into the cell where he was keeping Dinah Alcott. The kidnapping had been a success, even if the Undersiders had been captured. They had escaped a few days ago, anyway.

Thomas moved to his bedroom to retrieve his necessary gear. His sidearm, his badge, a briefcase full of relevant paperwork. Most of it dealing with Saiyan.

"Hello, Pet," Coil greeted with false cheer, "I have some questions for you today."

"Candy," the little girl demanded.

"After the questions," Coil told her.

Thomas received a call on his cell before he even left his bedroom, "Yes?... Of course…. I'll be there shortly, Director."

"What are the chances that my men will rebel today?" Coil asked.

"Two point zero three percent."

"Good," he nodded, "What are the chances of being found out by the PRT?"

"Zero point zero two percent. Candy, please," Dinah looked up at him with large, bloodshot, begging eyes.

"Just a few more questions, pet," he pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, almost lovingly.

Thomas made another call, on a burner phone. He had a new job for the Undersiders.

Coil asked another question now, "What are the chances that I will be attacked today?"

"One hundred percent."

"What."

"What." Thomas/Coil was in shock. The answer was delivered without any hint of hesitation and the girl was so stoned, he doubted she could muster up the idea of lying to him about it. He needed more information.

"Who is it?" Coil knew that wasn't a question the numbers could answer, so he made a guess, "Chances that it's the E-Eighty Eight?"

"Zero Percent."

He frowned.

"What are the chances of it being Tattletale?"

"One hundred Percent," Dina started to whimper, "It hurts. Candy, please."

"Just one more question, pet, then you can have your candy," he frowned then, "What are the chances that I can escape?"

"I'd say about zero percent there, boss man," Tattle tale said, appearing before him with her usual fox like smile. Only, this time, it took on a bloodthirsty edge that he _really_ didn't like.

"How did you get past my security?" he demanded, glaring at her from behind his mask.

"Eh, you know," she shrugged, "I have my ways," she lost all traces of humor then, pointed a glowing finger at his face, "Burn in hell, you sick motherfucker." A purple beam lanced through his head before he could think to dodge.

That timeline collapsed and Thomas Calvert was nearly knocked off his feet from the shock of it. Before he could create another one, Tattletale was in his home, grinning just like in the other timeline.

"Nice try, boss man," she adopted the same look as in the other timeline, just before she killed him and repeated her message, "Burn in hell, you sick motherfucker." The purple light, then darkness.

Tattletale looked down at the carcass that had once been the man that held her life in his hands. She had just visited his main base, and hadn't found him there, so, after hacking his files, she found out where he resided in his day to day, and teleported to his home.

She grinned again, "I'm really going to have to thank Saiyan, next time I see her," she looked at her still glowing finger, "This is just so useful."

She used the instant transmission then, going back to his base, and entering the room that he kept Dinah Alcott.

"Who are you?" the little girl asked blearily, "Will you give me candy?"

"No," Tattletale said, taking off her mask, sympathy in her eyes, "You're never getting candy again. The man that took you is gone."

"Can I go back home?" she asked with a sniffle.

"I'm afraid not," the blonde told the little girl, "Your parents… well, they're gone, too. But I promise. You'll be taken care of." After all, even if she wasn't going to have the girl drugged up, she was still far too useful to let go of so easily. In her mind, Tattletale smirked to herself as she imagined what it was going to be like, being the shadow ruler of the underworld.


	4. Chapter 4 The Youngest Brother

I should probably mention that this is pure Crack. The only thing that could add more crack is throwing in a Skitter/Behemoth pairing. I'm not actually planning on it, but it could happen.

It probably wont.

But it might.

Chapter Four: The Youngest Brother

Taylor hated to say it, but she was kind of bored. It was probably due to her first two weeks of being a hero, compared to the last three.

In her debut, she fought and won against Lung. A week later, as the novelty of being a member of the Wards was wearing off, she helped stop the bank robbery by the Undersiders. A few days later, the debacle with the ABB happened.

It had been just shy of three weeks since anything happened again.

Well, that's not to say that it was without incident, entirely. With the ABB completely decimated, the Merchants and the Empire began encroaching on their old territory. The Empire obviously took more than the Merchants, what with being better funded and having more capes, but the druggies still managed to get their hands on some ground. The only one who apparently didn't benefit was Coil, who had been rather quiet, even for the recluse. He'd only made enough moves lately for people to be sure he was still active.

Unfortunately, it was a rare occurrence for the Wards to be called in on a skirmish with other capes. The last couple of times had been special circumstances. A few skirmishes between the remaining gangs apparently didn't warrant the same level of response.

Already catching flak for her refusal to change her mask, Taylor knew it would probably be better to avoid going out on her own for now. The PRT frowned on their capes going rogue.

So, for the last nineteen days, Taylor didn't really have much to do, aside from train.

At that moment, the teen superhero was sitting down to lunch with her father, at the Dock Worker's Association.

"Seriously," she said with a smile, "Dennis just sits there like what he said was perfectly natural. Missy looked like she was gonna kill him and Carlos was hiding behind a case of facepalm."

Danny chuckled at the story of Dennis, AKA Clockblocker, apparently trying to seduce Miss Militia, "He didn't!" the man was barely able to choke out.

"He did," the girl countered. She couldn't believe how good it felt to have friends again. She wouldn't call Hess a friend, ever, but the rest of the team didn't treat her like an outcast or a freak. Dennis constantly made jokes about them becoming her cheerleaders if she kept getting stronger, but that was about the extent of it. It was… nice.

"So," the man calmed down and caught his breath after a minute or so, "how is your training going?"

Taylor grinned, as she usually did when he brought up Saiyan, "It's progressing by a percentage."

"That's… good?" he frowned in thought, trying to decipher it for himself.

"It is better than good," she told him, "Think of it like mud."

"Mud?" he snorted in amusement.

"Yup," she nodded, "When you have ten pounds of mud, it's still just mud. And if you add ten percent more to it, it doesn't become a mud and one tenth, it's just eleven pounds of mud. Keep adding ten percent more of the whole to the whole and you have what equates to a rather startling increase in the amount of mud from what you started with."

Danny did some quick, guestimate, calculations in his head. According to his mental calculator, it wouldn't take long at all before ten pounds of mud became twenty, then forty, then eighty, and so on.

"My training is going pretty much like mud. The stronger I get, the stronger I _can_ get," she smiled and flexed her arms for show. Before all of this, the girl had been slightly pudgy around the middle and stick thin everywhere else. Now, while she wasn't quite bulging, the girl was carved out of marble and coated with steel. Her biceps, which she was displaying at the moment, looked like you could crack diamonds over them.

"Splendid," the man said with a bit of a forced grin.

"Yeah, it is, and it's got me thinking," she said, oblivious to his distaste, "I've figured out the human racial bonus."

"Pardon?"

"Okay, remember that the Saiyans get stronger every time they nearly die and then recover?" when he nodded, Taylor continued, "It makes them ridiculously overpowered, ridiculously quickly. Human's don't have that. What they've got is a constant stream of growth potential. Just like the mud. Saiyans add double the mud they had, anytime they dry out. Human's just keep adding a percentage of their best. It takes longer for us to reach the same levels, but we'll get there eventually, if we keep with it. I honestly doubt I'll ever reach the outrageous levels of outright godhood that they touched on towards the end of it, but I'll still be more than enough for nearly everyone else, I'd say."

"Oh," Danny nodded now, "I suppose that makes sense," he took a bite of his sandwich, thinking about all of this, "You said you were going to be a god, when you first told me about all of this."

"Yeah," the girl waved that away, "I may have exaggerated, a smidge. I don't think I could reach that kind of power in three lifetimes, let alone my own."

The man nodded again. It was so strange to think that his daughter was already one of the toughest on the entire planet. He almost wished he could have a scouter. It might give him a better base of understanding for what his daughter was dealing with.

"Well," he finally said, "At least it's going well for one of us. I've been arguing for months, but I just can't get the mayor to sign off on reopening the ferry."

"I wish I could help, Dad," she said, "but I don't think punching him, or blowing him up, would make it any easier on you."

Danny chuckled, "No, I don't think it would. Might make me feel better, though." Taylor laughed too, and they moved on with their conversation, covering things like the impending school year, the trust fund that was paid to Wards for college, and the promised payment she would receive for being a member of the Protectorate, once she turned eighteen. They also talked about their favorite scenes in a movie they'd seen just the night before, where Taylor had been getting with a book she was reading, and Danny tried to convince his daughter that he was going to be the next, big, acapella sensation.

It was around that time that sirens started going off all over the city.

"What the-?"

Taylor's company phone started ringing in her pocket and she pulled it out, answering it immediately.

At the same time as she was being given a vague brief, another worker, and a friend of her father's came running up to the two of them.

"Danny!" he huffed in a panic, "It's the Endbringer alarm! They say it's-"

"Leviathan," Taylor breathed.

Taylor and Danny looked each other in the eye.

-9001-

Saiyan ported into the Protectorate HQ. It was already buzzing with activity, men and women moving about with purpose.

In the center of it all, organizing and delegating, were Miss Militia, Armsmaster, and Director Piggot.

"Saiyan," Armsmaster said to her, "We need you to aide in the evacuation. Start with the docks. We have already sent the other Wards out to-"

"I can kill him," she interrupted the TInker, "I can kill Leviathan."

Unlike some of the things that Saiyan had said and done in the recent past, this was not something anyone hadn't expected her to say. Most newly triggered capes were surprisingly full of themselves. It's what usually got them killed in their first Endbringer fight.

"No, you can't," the man said.

"Yes, I-"

"No," he said more sternly this time, "you can't. You have no idea how many times I have heard the exact same thing, again and again from newbies. A Brute who thinks he's tough enough to take a hit from one. A Blaster that thinks she can kill one with one attack. Strangers that think they can sneak right by them," he looked her directly in the eye, "Almost all of them are dead now because they were overconfident in their abilities."

"But I-"

" _You,_ " Director Piggot stepped in now, "will follow orders. If you want your shot at Leviathan, you will help evacuate the civilians first," she narrowed her eyes at the girl, "Unless you would rather be evacuated."

Taylor almost growled. As it was, they could see her brow furrowing under her mask. She closed her eyes, smoothed out her expression, and took a deep breath.

"Alright. Okay," she said, a moment later, "Start with the docks. where should I go after that?"

Armsmaster pointed at the map of the city, "After the docks are evacuated of all civilians, proceed to the staging area, here," he pointed to a rather large building that would be large enough to hold a couple hundred people, "We have six hours until he makes land. The Triumvirate should be her well ahead of that time to brief everyone. Here," he handed her a digital armband, "This is from Dragon. State your name and affiliation with the wards. It will then provide live updates to the battle. You'll receive more instructions later, keep it on you. Now, go."

Saiyan nodded. She paced her fingers to her forehead and used the Instant Transmission. There would be anywhere from a few hundred, to a few thousand people on the docks at any one time. Hopefully the sirens were enough to convince most of them to leave, but there would always be a few that just wouldn't listen.

-9001-

It took just over five hours for Saiyan to finish getting everyone out of what was, essentially, ground zero. By the time she was done a heavy, torrential rain was beating down on the city. It was part of Leviathan's powers. Macro-hydrokinesis. It gave him a renewable weapon.

The teen hero ignored the meeting point, though. She had a plan.

Saiyan knew, without a doubt, that she could kill Leviathan. With one shot. But they wouldn't let her just get to it. They wouldn't put their faith in her.

She honestly couldn't blame them. Especially not after what they'd said about the usual life expectancy of _any_ cape that fought an Endbringer.

Still, she had decided that she was going to show them that she could kill him.

How, you may ask? Simple.

When she watched DBZ she noticed something pretty interesting. Taking out the dramatic slow-mo, each of the characters who used an energy beam attack to end a fight charged up Chi for only a few seconds, aside from the Spirit Bomb and the Special Beam Cannon, only to release a blast capable of destroying entire planets, sometimes even more.

It made her question, what would happen if Goku had ten minutes, thirty, _an hour_ , to charge up his attack?

She was about to find out.

Saiyan gathered her Ki, using it to bring an instant glow of Chi to her skin. Almost immediately the rain stopped hitting her quite as hard. She pulled her hands to her right hip, cupped as if holding an invisible ball. A fraction of a second later and a red ball of light was floating between her palms. It's surfaces writhed and shifted, as if eager to be used, but Saiyan just kept it there, adding more and more power to it. The rain stopped hitting her at all at that point and a dome started to form around her where the fat, angry drops of rain simply wouldn't fall. It grew by about an inch a minute.

" _Ruby... Vague... de Balle!_ "

For thirty eight minutes, the girl did nothing but charge her attack.

At that point, Kid Win found her on the roof and approached on his hoverboard.

"Saiyan!" he had to yell to be heard over the rain, "What are you doing?!" he continued to shout as he drew closer until he passed into her rain free dome. He blinked for a moment, staring at the roof where he suddenly realized it was dry, despite this raging monsoon.

He then looked at her attack, what he knew she called her _Ruby Balle_ , or Ruby Bullet. it was brighter in some way he couldn't really understand. It wasn't truly brighter, but, perhaps, heavier might be a better term.

"How long have you been charging that up?"

Before she could answer, the armband came alive with Dragon's voice.

"Leviathan has reached land. Engage."

Indeed, they could see his massive head, standing well above the small buildings nearby.

Saiyan teleported the second after she spotted him.

The rain suddenly drenched the part of the roof she had been standing on, soaking Kid Win as well.

Next, there was a flash of light so bright, followed by a sound like a thousand gongs being rung at once. The very air seemed to shake with its resonance. It lasted for seven seconds before a horrible silence settled over the city, only broken by the heavy patter of the rain, that was now quickly dwindling.

When Saiyan had appeared before the monster, it had immediately lifted a claw to strike her down. It didn't even care that her appearance was causing the surging tides that he controlled to completely avoid where she stood. He just needed to kill her, and as many of the other capes in the city as he could. Maybe a few thousands regular people. He'd like to turn it into a lake, if he could.

Before he could, even with his unsurpassed speed, Saiyan thrust her attack forward. Just like when she attacked Lung, she made sure to fire upwards. Who knew what this would do to the planet if it actually struck something aside from her target?

The beam widened dramatically after only a few feet away from her. It wasn't quite enough to completely encompass the monster, but his entire torso, head, most of his arms, and his upper legs and tail were all within it as it scoured away his layers.

In the first microsecond, twelve of its softer layers were completely eradicated. By the two second mark, the blast had destroyed everything down to the few physics breaking dense layers just outside of its core. By the fifth second, with the monster somehow still alive, Saiyan was starting to think that, maybe, Armsmaster had been right. She wasn't ready yet.

A six and a half seconds, the overwhelming power of the Chi blast finally destroyed the last layer of existence the monster had and vaporized the core.

The girl fell to her hands and knees, gasping desperately for air. He lungs felt like they were on fire, her arms shook, her face was drenched with sweat, and it felt like she had a fever at the same time as freezing from the inside out.

Over her armband she heard Dragon's voice again, "Leviathan-Deceased."

Seconds later, still trying to catch her breath, she looked up to see one of the Triumvirate, the most powerful of them, Eidolon, floating above her, staring down at her with a speculative gaze.

-9001

Chapter End.

Yes, that just happened. It was on the books right at the beginning when I started to write this. I hope I made enough of a point about how difficult it was for Taylor to actually defeat Leviathan in this chapter. If not, the power levels this time should clear some things up.

Eidolon-5/700

Leviathan- 400/1300

Taylor- 912

Please Enjoy.


	5. Chapter 5 Nine Little Psychos

One of my reviewers said something that got me grinning.

 **ReaperCB919** said, "S-class now stands for 'Saiyan'."

I love the way that sounds.

Chapter Five: Nine Little Psychos

"How did you do it?" Eidolon asked, "How did you do what thousands of other capes have tried to do for _years?_ " The man was standing in an interrogation room. There was a steel table that was bolted to the ground, a two way mirror, and four folding chairs.

Sitting in two of the chairs were Danny and Taylor Hebert. Taylor was shoveling an insane amount of food into her mouth. She must have eaten twenty pounds of food already, and still kept going.

The hero supposed that, considering how she looked when she first came in with him- pale clammy skin, dilated pupils, limbs shaking, breathing ragged-, eating a metric fuck ton of food was far preferred. It didn't particularly matter what it was, either. As long as it was edible, she ate it.

She barely stopped long enough to answer, though thankfully not attempting to speak around a mouth full of food.

"I almost didn't," she said, looking into the glow of his hood, "I killed an Endbringer in seven seconds and everyone is celebrating it. If they knew what I knew, they'd be quivering in their boots."

The man in the green and white costume crossed his arms over his broad chest, "And what is it that you know?"

"I hit Leviathan with the equivalent of a supernova, give or take a few thousand nukes, and it took _seven seconds_ to kill him. I had to charge that attack for forty minutes, and it only hit him because I knew exactly where to teleport to," she said, setting down her food for a moment, "If I had pointed that attack downwards, our _planet_ would have been vaporized in _one second_. Do you honestly think I'll get such a clean shot at Behemoth? Or Ziz?"

Eidolon didn't quite know what to say to that. It was a valid question. He doubted that the Simurgh would just sit there and let Saiyan kill her. Behemoth would be even harder with his dynakinesis. Sure, Blasters weren't wholly ineffective against him, but who knew how much it would take for something like that to kill him.

Sending her against the other Endbringers at this point would just not work. Serious work needed to be done before that.

But that didn't mean there weren't any other jobs that she could be useful for.

Eidolon could think of _nine_ particular people that needed a good bit of the Leviathan treatment.

"I have something in mind that I think you can help with, Saiyan. How long until you are battle ready again?"

"Another four hours. But, if you want me to be stronger, give me a week," the teen told him, "What is it that you want me to do?"

"I want you to kill the Slaughterhouse Nine."

-9001-

Lisa sat at Coil's desk, looking across at the little girl that was still twitchy from her brief times on the powerful stimulants.

"My parents are dead," the little girl said. It wasn't a had asked the numbers. She knew it was the truth.

"Yes, they are," the blonde teen said.

"You don't want to let me go," the little girl said again.

"No, I don't," Tattletale sighed, "I'd rather have you working for me. Our two powers could be quite useful when put together. For instance," she turned around the computer screen, showing the gathered info on the entire Empire Eighty Eight that Coil had gathered, "I can make a guess about how the E-Eighty Eight will react, but you could tell me the odds of it working in my favor if I outed them, anonymously," she shrugged and deleted the file, "That was Coil's plan. Dumb as fuck, if you ask me. The unwritten rules of the game make that a ploy that would have eventually gotten him killed. He probably would have asked the vaguest of questions about it, then used his power to see what would happen."

Dinah nodded. The chances of the Empire actually falling because they were outed were below forty percent. The chances that they would turn on the city violently, seventy eight point three three percent. Chances of Tattletale doing that, six point zero two percent.

"But I won't keep you here against your will. I know what that is like," she reached into her desk, and pulled out a stack of bills, "Instead, I'll offer to pay you for every answer I get. Ten thousand a piece. I don't care where you go, if you decide to leave. I'll still contact you, if you'll let me, and I'll still pay you."

Dinah stared at the stack of money, glared at it really, "You'd let me go live with my uncle? With a hero?"

"Certainly," Lisa smiled, "You could even tell him where my base is, if you want. I won't be here by the time he gets here, and I'll never contact you again."

The little girl glared at her lap, clutching the fabric of her pants in her hands, "Why?" it was almost a whisper, "The numbers. They keep giving me absolutes. Chances you're lying, zero percent. Chances you'll keep your word, one hundred percent. Chances of you doing what Coil did to me, zero percent. Why does that keep happening? What makes you so special?"

Lisa shrugged, "You saw that video of Saiyan killing Leviathan yet?" after the girl nodded, the villainess went on, "I will be able to do that too, soon enough. Having you on board would be a great help, but it isn't crucial, I can, and will, take over the underworld with brute force if I have to. I'm even thinking about _awakening_ chosen among my mercs, if they prove loyal enough. I don't need you, I want you. And I'm willing to pay ten grand a question for you. Nothing more, nothing less."

Dinah released the grip she had on her pants, taking a deep breath, "Alright, I'll do it. But I want to live with my uncle."

"Splendid. I'll have Jacobs take you to the mall and keep an eye on you until your uncle shows up," she pressed a button on her desk, smiling, "Before you go, I do have one question." she pushed the stack of bills forward.

"What?" The girl reached up and took the money.

"What are the chances that Saiyan and I will fight in the future?"

"One hundred percent," not even a second of hesitation, "I can't say who will win. The numbers get weird when I try that, but you _will_ fight. And one more thing," the girl said.

"Yes?" Tattletale asked raising an eyebrow, "What is it?"

"Don't use Saiyan's file. If you do, you'll lose," Dinah got up and left at that point, meeting Jacobs just as he opened the door.

Lisa frowned, looking at the briefcase full of notes on the teen that had just killed an Endbringer. What was it that was so dangerous? Why would she lose?

Was it worth the risk to find out?

-9001-

At the Protectorate HQ, Taylor Hebert was going through her usual workout routine. She had been at it for an hour so far, and sweat was pouring off of her. She was on the bench press now, genuinely struggling to lift the bar for yet another rep.

Now, you may ask what kind of Tinker Tech bs was she using that could give her the necessary difficulty to make it worth her time to even lift? How much must it weigh? What kind of gravity manipulating chamber were they letting her use?

The answer, not what you think.

"Ha, look at this," an unwanted voice said, "The big, bad Saiyan, Killer of Enbringers, struggling to bench a hundred and eighty pounds."

Taylor set the bar on the rack after just twenty reps and sat up, wiping her brow of sweat, "Hello, Sophia."

"Hello, she says," the black girl snorted.

"What?" the girl frowned, "What's wrong with saying hello? Does that offend you?"

"Nope," Sophia said, popping the p, "Not in the least," she pulled up a set of free weights, "I'm just in awe," she started curling thirty pounds on each arm, staring directly at the girl, "Bitch kills the unkillable, then acts like she's nobody special. It's weird."

Taylor shook her head, "No, it's really not. It was a fluke. Extenuating circumstances let me kill him," she took a sip from her water bottle, "I beat Lung, Lung fought Leviathan to a stand still. I thought that meant I could beat Levi-chan just as easily. I was wrong."

"But you killed him, didn't you?" Hess insisted.

"Yup," Taylor nodded, but didn't explain further, "And to answer your first question, I can turn my powers off, sorta-kinda. Makes it much easier to work out if I don't have to find something that weight a couple of gigatons every time I want to do some curls."

"Hmm," the other girl just hummed, looking rather skeptical, "Whatever. Emma wants me to invite you over to her place for dinner."

Taylor looked at Sophia with a stony mask, "I don't like you, Hess. I don't like Barnes, either. We are not friends. We are teammates, nothing more. You don't get to do the friendly dinner thing with me. You can tell Barnes to stay the fuck away from me. Just because you can't hurt me anymore doesn't mean I'm not holding a grudge." With that said, Taylor put her fingers to her forehead and teleported away with the usual twang.

"Damn it," Sophia cursed under her breath.

-9001-

Saiyan sat in a briefing room with Eidolon, Alexandria and Legend. She had to admit it, she was in awe. These were three of the people she had admired most when she was younger.

And they had come to her for help.

"The last sighting we had of the Nine was here," Alexandria pointed to a small town at the state border on a digital map projected onto the table, "They appeared to be going back west," she pointed to a jagged red line of dashes that showed their previous route, "They had been heading towards Brockton Bay, until you killed Leviathan," Taylor was getting tired of hearing about that, but doubted it would stop any time soon, "Jack Slash is a canny bastard. He's weak, especially compared to his compatriots, but he knows how to read a situation. We think he knows that fighting you is a losing prospect."

"Yeah," Legend, the most lighthearted of the three, smiled at her, "Don't really want to find out how a fight between us would end up, either."

"Right," Saiyan smiled back at the man, then nodded back at the table, "Who should I take out first? Jack?"

"No," Eidolon said, "He's the leader, but the biggest threat, all said, is Bonesaw. Her specialty is biological Tinkering. She can play with people's powers, raise the dead, even fuse two people together, if she gets the desire to do so. Kill her, _obliterate her_ , before going after any of the others. Whatever you did to Leviathan, do it to her."

Taylor nodded.

"Siberian is… difficult," Alexandria said, next, "She is the absolute definition of invincible. Nothing hurts her. Nothing stops her. She doesn't eat, or sleep. She does breathe, but she doesn't need to. We don't know if your power will do anything to her, but don't risk it. Whatever defenses you have won't matter to her. Do not let her hit you."

"Right," again, the girl nodded. She had learned her lesson about underestimating her enemies. She would be taking no chances with the Nine.

"Finally, Hatchet Face," Legend said, "Word has it, he was killed by their newest member, Cherish, in Canada. Bonesaw resurrected him. His Trump ability will cancel out your powers, so you can't get close to him, or he'll put you back on the level of a regular human then use his still enhanced strength to end you."

"Where are they now?" Taylor asked. She wished that DBZ would have done a better job of showing them sensing the energy of others. They barely hinted at it, and that wasn't enough for her to pick it up. She had theories that she was trying to implement, but that would take months. Time she didn't have for this mission.

"We've got eyes on Crawler, for the moment, but the others might be traveling separately," Alexandria informed the teen, "From this point forward you are on call. We find them, you kill them. Anything else is to be dropped, I don't care what it is. Understood?"

Saiyan nodded solemnly, looking at the pictures of the Slaughterhouse Nine. Killing this band of freaks would be a victory for the world, just like Leviathan had been. It was kind of nerve wracking that it was all on her shoulders.

"For the time being, you are being relegated to monitor duty," the female member of the Triumvirate went on, "We feel that having you actively patrol would cause negative reactions from the local gangs, and it will be easier to reach you once the Nine are positively located."

The teen sighed, "I guess no good deed goes unpunished, huh?"

Alexandria's wry smirk was the only emotion she had seen out of the woman so far.

-9001-

For the first week, Taylor was sure that she was about to be called in, every other second. It was a real distraction, especially while on monitor duty. She almost missed a few crimes happening because of it.

Then the call finally did come in. The image of the town and its correlation to her current position were sent to her. Taylor pulled on her mask, took a deep breath, and put her fingers to her forehead.

Instead of popping into the center of the town, and hunting down the monsters, Saiyan appeared a few thousand feet above it. From there she could still easily see crawler, and descended slowly until she could make out the others.

She was rather surprised to find Jack waving to her, rather amiably, all said. She frowned deeper as she questioned how he had known she was there. She shook it off quickly, focusing on the mission. She descended to about sixty feet up.

"Well, hello," Jack grinned at her, "Here to kill us then, are you?"

"Yup," Saiyan nodded.

"And you really think you can?" his grin grew wider, "Better than you have tried and failed."

"No one like me has tried," the girl insisted.

"Arrogance doesn't suit you, poppet," Jack pulled a knife, "I bet this wouldn't hurt you, all powered up like that. But I wonder, what would happen if you couldn't use your powers at all?"

At some unseen signal, Hatchet Face came out of nowhere, leaping into the air and grabbing her by the throat.

Now, truthfully, the only thing that happened when he turned her power off was that she didn't have the immediate understanding of how everyone was moving around her. It did nothing to her learned abilities.

Still, she pretended it did, letting her Ki enhanced strength fade away for a moment, clutching at Hatchet Face's wrist as he landed.

"See, that's the problem with you hero types," Jack said as he approached, flipping a straight razor about in his hand, "You get one good victory and you think you're invincible. Did you really think that one little girl could succeed where hundreds of others have failed? Did you really think we only became so notorious as a fluke?" He flicked his blade absently, causing her shoulder to start bleeding. Just enough to hurt, really.

"I… have… a… question…" the girl gasped and gagged against Hatchet Face's grip, clutching desperately at his wrist.

Jack raised an eyebrow, still smiling. A hero showing some audacity? Tenacity even? This should be amusing. Even Bonesaw looked curious.

"Hatchet, my boy, let go of her throat. Grab her by the head, instead. If she tries anything, crush her skull," the madman ordered.

"Oh, oh! but not too much," Bonesaw said with a bright grin, "If her brain gets too damaged, it will be quite the hassle to get it working again."

The tall Brute nodded, switching his grip to the teen's head, instead of her throat.

"Ask away, poppet."

Saiyan visibly gulped, rubbing her throat, "How do you guys eat?"

"What?" That was actually from Siberian. The naked, black and white striped woman looking genuinely confused by such an obtuse question.

"Seriously," the teen hero went on, "I know, you guys are the biggest and the baddest outside of the Endbringers. You kill and kill and kill some more, just for shits and giggles. You probably steal your food from whatever is available, but really," she shrugged, putting her hands in the pocket of her hoodie, "The image of the infamous Jack Slash rooting through someone's fridge, bitching about the junk food, just strikes me as funny."

"Heh," Jack snorted, "Haha!" It turned into a chuckle, "Hee haw ha ha!" Finally, he started full out laughing. "Bonesaw!" he finally breathed out after a couple of minutes, "When you open this one up, make sure to leave that imagination."

"Will do!" the little girl chirped, "Can I do it now?"

"Absolutely, dear," the Englishman pat her on the head, smiling warmly at her, "You do what you do best. I can't wait to see your latest masterpiece."

Bonesaw summoned a few of her spider bots and started moving towards Saiyan, "Stay nearby, Hatchet," the little girl said with a big smile, "Don't want her getting her powers bac-"

There was a sound that could be compared to 'Pew! Pew!' and Bonesaw was suddenly a head short.

"What?" Jack looked at the headless corpse of his favorite and most useful protege, then at the one that killed her. His mind was stuck, trying to compute how Saiyan was immune to Hatchet Face's power. His Trump ability stopped everyone else's from working. That was why Bonesaw had the spiderbots with her. She had programmed what she was going to do to Saiyan into them, she was just there to oversee it all. The only one that had ignored it before was Siberian.

For the few short moments that the Slaughterhouse Nine were frozen with shock, Saiyan acted. Her next attack atomized her captor, bringing her Thinker ability back online.

By that time, Siberian was leaping at her, fingers extended like claws. Saiyan zipped away, faster than the naked woman could follow. She stopped near Crawler.

The giant regenerator roared at her and prepared to spit a veritable pool of acid at her.

" _Ruby Balle!_ " She called out, hitting the monster with her signature attack. He was completely gone in under two seconds. She teleported away, half a second before Siberian could hit her.

This time she appeared in front of Jack and hit him with a generic ball of energy. Just like Bonesaw, he went down with very little effort. Missing a head was just too much for whatever improvements the Bio-Tinker had made.

Again, she dodged the Siberian just in time, this time going skywards as she blasted Burnscar and Cherish into ash.

"C'mon, bitch!" Saiyan called down to invulnerable woman, "Come get some!" She held her hands before her, making a triangle. She then waited until the woman leapt into the air, then blasted her, " _Tribeam_ _!_ " The parahuman was blasted back into the ground, " _Tribeam_ _! Ha! Ha! Ha!_ " The perfectly square shaped hole in the ground kept getting deeper and deeper. A few seconds later, Siberian shimmered into existence next to the newly created pit, and Saiyan gained new insight into her invulnerability.

"You aren't real," she narrowed her eyes at what her power told her was a projection, "Someone's making you, controlling you. No wonder you can't be hurt." She didn't even turn around to hit Mannequin as he snuck up on her. She just mumbled, " _Ruby Balle,_ " and destroyed the torso, where he kept his organs in a _nearly_ invulnerable shell.

Shatterbird made an inhuman scream and class everywhere around them, for miles, shattered, then streaked at Saiyan. Another errant blast of energy killed the macrokinetic glass user.

"Now," Saiyan said, easily dodging another blow from the projection, "Where's your master?"

She teleported high into the sky, too high for the Siberian to jump and decided to try her hand at a sensor technique, hoping for the best. She closed her eyes and focused, before pushing a nearly imperceptible chi bubble outwards from her self. It was slow going, made slower when the Siberian started throwing vehicles at her.

After a few minutes, though, she finally started to get a read of the small town. Saiyan would describe it like seeing small, lit matches in a pitch black room. They seemed to have differing color, and there were very few after the S-Nine decided to give the town a visit, but there were still quite a few of them.

One, however, stood out.

The person was in a truck or van of some sort, and there was a… pulsing of his Ki. It looked like it was being dragged out of him, a very little bit at a time. The amount was so small and thin that she actually couldn't track it after a couple of feet.

She teleported over to him. Siberian formed half a second after she arrived, confirming her suspicion, but too late to stop Saiyan from hitting the Van with another Chi blast, blowing it sky high.

Siberian had an odd look on her face, like a mix of shock and disbelief, before she fizzled out of existence.

Saiyan stopped for a moment, then went back to the mostly intact corpses of the members of the nine, and atomized them. Wouldn't do for some idjit with delusions of grandeur to clone these bastards and start the problem all over again.

-9001

And then that happened.

Jack Slash- 20

Bonesaw- 15

Crawler- 320

Mannequin- 160

Hatchet Face- 135

Burnscar- 80

Shatterbird- 200

Cherish- 12

Siberian-?

Professor Manton- 6

Alexandria- 620

Legend- 450

Sophia/Shadowstalker- 35

Taylor/Saiyan- 1468

Cherish sensed Taylor, that's how they knew she was coming.

Please Enjoy.


	6. Chapter 6 Upward Momentum

Yeah, I completely messed up the Tribeam-Solar Flare thing, there. If you go back and check, I edited that to be correct.

Sorry about that.

Chapter Six: Upward Momentum

Lisa Wilbourn watched the news with an appreciative eye for the small details.

On the wide screen in front of her, Saiyan was receiving an award for services to the country and the world at large. One, for killing the Slaughterhouse Nine, the other for killing Leviathan.

Lisa's power told her a lot about some of the more subtle things going on.

For one, everyone could tell that this was an attempt by the president to profit off of this upheaval in the global balance. With a Hero that was capable of ending some of the threats that had plagues the world for so long on his side, he could get back in office for a third term, if it were made legal to do so again.

What they didn't see was that this was a last cry for help from a government that was being eaten alive by the fact that the Villains didn't give two shits about the law. If President Philsy and his fellows could take back even one tiny iota of respect, it would be a major victory.

Another thing a lot of people would have missed was how uncomfortable Saiyan was, standing there and receiving accolades for killing people. It wasn't that she was conflicted with what she did. Jack Slash and his crew of monsters were just that. They had given up their humanity long ago, for whatever reasons.

No, what bugged the girl was the attention.

Lisa stopped her progression of kata to snicker. _Poor girl_ , she thought, _Wants to be a real hero. Hates the attention._

 _Was bullied. Hates being center of attention because of it. Only recently-_

She sighed as her power kicked in for a moment before she stopped it from telling her more. She honestly didn't care what the girl had been like before. Saiyan had obviously gotten over it. Maybe it was even what caused her Trigger.

Still didn't matter.

She was still way stronger than Tattletale. The blonde could guess at how much of a head start the girl had, just by what she'd done so far. Still, if her source(her power) was right, she was about to hit something of a ceiling.

That would be her time to catch up. It would probably be in little more than half a year, if they continued at this rate, but it would happen, without a doubt.

However, that was only if Saiyan and Tattletale kept up their training.

Lisa could already see the problem with that.

The blonde knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Saiyan would keep training, keep growing, until she could kill the other two Endbringers. After that, though…

What reason would she have to get stronger, if there was no one to challenge her? Why would she do anything but maintain her current level, if it was enough to defeat any of her enemies?

Lisa aimed to be the reason for Saiyan's continued growth.

Why, you may ask? Because this feeling, this _power_ , was intoxicating. It made Tattletale giddy when she first flew. Sure, it was just a few feet off the ground, and inside the base she had appropriated from Coil, but she had flown, none the less.

She could only imagine what it must feel like to be on the level of the characters in DBZ. So strong that world ending threats, things that could blink and destroy a star, were just an inconvenience. She wanted that.

But first, she had to get strong enough to _be_ a challenge. As it was, Saiyan would deal with her just as easily as she had Lung. Easier, most like.

Lisa dropped to the ground, one hand behind her back, the other placed precisely to keep her balance while doing one armed pushups, grunting with the effort after only a few repetitions.

"If only Kaioken didn't have a power requirement," she grumbled, eyes still glued to the screen, "Then we'd be havin' it out sooner, rather than later." A grin spread slowly across her face as she licked her lips, "But don't let me slow you down. I'll get there, sooner than you think. Then we can have some real fun."

-9001-

High above the Earth, drifting in orbit near the moon, the Simurgh, Ziz, was gazing down at the planet rather intently. Not that one could tell. None of the Endbringers were made with the ability to emote.

That is not to say that they didn't have emotions at all.

Behemoth was a creature of hate and rage. He genuinely wanted to kill everything, and every time he failed to destroy a city it just caused his rage to grow.

Leviathan had disliked the people that fought him, but he didn't hate them like Behemoth. He didn't even like attacking the cities. It was just something he had done because it was the reason for his existence. What he liked, however, was whales. They had been fun to swim with.

And Ziz?

Well, at that moment, she felt fear.

Fear for her life. Fear for her future. She could see it. She had always been able to see it.

If something didn't change soon, she would die. Killed by the hero calling herself Saiyan.

She looked down on the world below her, focusing every ounce of her precognitive ability on the parahuman that would kill her, trying to find some way to change the course of her future.

There was no way she could use one of her Ripples. They'd never have the strength to do it, and the PRT had long since took to quarantining the survivors of her attacks.

Going after the girl's father just ended up with Ziz dying quicker.

If she waited, let the usual cycles take place, she'd live a few months longer, but she would still die.

She thought about bringing the other Endbringers online. That _shortened_ her time, causing Saiyan to grow stronger, quicker, in order to combat the threat more effectively.

If Ziz could have cried, she would have. It was just completely hopeless. There was nothing she, or her Ripples, could do that would…

Wait. There was something. Not something she could do, directly, but something that might let her live. Something that would remove her threat level in Saiyan's eyes.

Something that would free the Simurgh of her destructive imperative.

Her form twitched, her feathers ruffling silently in the vacuum of space. If she could, she would be smiling.

-9001-

"Nice medal," Shadowstalker said, sitting down next to Saiyan in the cafeteria at the Protectorate.

Taylor didn't bother to acknowledge the black girl, just continuing to eat her sandwich. For some reason, Hess was insistent about getting on her good side. Obsessed with it, really. Taylor was having none of it.

"Seriously, though, good work on the S-Nine. Bout damn time someone crossed those freaks off a list," the track runner kept going, despite the lack of response, "Makes me wonder about what's next, though. Lung, in prison. Leviathan, dead. Jack Slash, deader than dead."

The previously skinny teen stood up then, going towards the dormitory. She never actually stayed there, like some of the other wards, but it was a nice place to hang out, sometimes.

Sophia didn't give up, though. She dumped her tray and quickly followed the strongest girl on the planet.

"Madison is havin' a party before school starts again," the exvigilante said, having to practically jog to keep up with the taller girl, "You're invited."

Taylor whirled on the black girl, a frown on her face, "Go bother someone that cares," she turned back around, took a few steps, then faced the other girl again, "You know, I really don't get you. What in the hell makes you think we're friends? What makes you have even an inkling that I would want to spend my downtime with you?"

Sophia just smirked, "You're a predator, now," she crossed her arms, "Just like me. That's why you didn't push to have me sent to patrol that Alaskan Quarantine zone. And when you finally get annoyed with all this," she gestured dismissively at the building they were in, "You're gonna need someone on your side." She didn't have to say that she felt it would be her, Sophia Hess, that Taylor eventually looked to for a friend.

The tall girl stared at the bane of her previous existence with the very definition of a blank stare.

"Are you retarded?"

Sophia blinked, "What?"

"You must be, if you buy any of that," Taylor scoffed, "A predator? You know, that actually suits you perfectly. You are definitely a predator," seeing the black girl starting to regain her smirk, she continued, "Just like a creepy bald guy watching a playground," she stepped closer to the track star, "And me? I'm not a predator," a smirk grew across her own face, not a nice one, "I'm a hunter," she turned back around, walking away again, "Make of that what you will."

"Damn it!" Sophia cursed again, punching the wall in a fit of pique.

-9001-

It had been two weeks since she had been sent to kill the Slaughterhouse Nine, and Saiyan was pleasantly surprised that her job hadn't just swiftly come to an end from all the bad guys just giving up. Because, wouldn't ya know it, the baddies and law breakers and neo nazi's just knew that they could get away with it, anyway.

After all, there was only one Saiyan, and she couldn't be everywhere at once.

That was definitely true. She couldn't be _everywhere_ in the world. But Brockton Bay? That was hers.

And since she'd been practicing her sensing ability, she'd been able to work out the locations of the bad guys that much quicker. Instead of taking nearly ten minutes, it had been cut down to just under six, eight when under fire. Armsmaster helped to train her.

Oddly enough, the Tinker seemed… bitter for some reason. Taylor couldn't begin to guess why. She knew to stay out of Tinker labs, and she hadn't broken anything of his. Not even accidentally. On the bright side, he really tried his hardest to disrupt her concentration in the practice session.

"Saiyan to Command," she said, high in the air, "The docks are quiet. Moving on to the next sector."

"Roger that, Saiyan," came the voice of Kid Win, "Be advised, two figures have been seen moving about just outside your current patrol route. Identities unknown, but could be trouble."

"Understood," the girl said, "I'll keep an eye out." Saiyan looked around for a moment, but didn't see anything prominent. No skulking villains in hoods, standing on rooftops. No monsters waiting to jump out at her.

She shrugged, and started flying towards her next check in point.

Only to be blinded by the smoke and fire of an explosion that went off in her face.

"Ha!" a male shouted, "Told you I could hit her!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," another grumbled, "Didn't hurt her, though."

The smoke cleared and the teen hero could see two men, in brightly colored uniforms, standing on what was clearly an alien saucer. She didn't even have to glance at it twice to realize the vehicle was an exact replica of Frieza's ship.

And if she wasn't mistake, that would be Uber and Leet, dressed up as the cannon fodder soldiers Frieza employed that used arm mounted cannons to fire energy blasts. Blasts like the one that just hit her.

That irked her.

"You two did _not_ just do that," she growled, narrowing her eyes at them.

The two stopped their bickering to look up at her, paling by a few shades.

"Oh, right, record breaking Brute/Blaster about to beat the daylights out of us," Leet said, looking at her through the scouter he had cobbled together. He hadn't figured out a way for it to give him actual power levels, but it did give a general description of her height and body density.

"Run?" Uber asked, not even bothering to aim his arm cannon at her again.

"Run," Leet agreed.

The two twirled about on the spot, ready to jump back in their ship and activate its stealth ability. With that, they might be able to get away.

Unfortunately, by the time they had completed their one hundred eighty degree turn, Saiyan was standing their, cracking her knuckles.

"Leet," the taller of the two said.

"Yeah, Uber?" the Tinker asked.

"I love you, bro."

"In memory of Yamcha," the hero interrupted their little moment, "Gay." With that, the girl moved.

Uber and Leet were annoyances. Hardly even worth the attention they got. They were more incompetent than anything else, and good at getting away. That was the main reason they had never been caught. They simply weren't priority.

That was why Taylor decided to take the two with pure martial arts. No Chi blasts needed.

Uber had obviously shed whatever skill it was that let him hit her in the face with that blast earlier, trading it for a martial art mastery. He stepped forward, ready to stall her so Leet could get away and distract her so they both could escape.

The Thinker had barely even thrown his punch before he was on his back with a slim fist heading towards his face. He barely rolled out of the way. When he made it back to his feet it was just in time to see Saiyan clothesline his friend and partner.

"Damn it!" he cursed, heading for the girl, using his ability to master aikido for the moment.

Saiyan turned to face him again and took up a separate stance from his own, one fist by her waist, her left hand and foot forward.

"At least make this interesting, okay," the girl said.

Uber almost glared at her for that. If he didn't know she was playing with him, he'd have tried something reckless to get her to pay him some respect.

Instead, he went in cautiously, probing her defenses with a couple of quick jabs.

The teen just batted them aside, almost moving at the same time he did.

They moved slowly around one another for a couple of moments, then suddenly leapt at one another, trading blows like it was a kung fu movie. Kicks, punches, dodges, blocks, and counters happened so quickly and smoothly that the average person would believe that it must have been choreographed.

Uber was trying his best to land any blow he could, just to say he had been the only villain, ever, to actually hit her, but the girl wasn't going for it in the slightest.

"Fuck!" the man yelled when he overextended. Saiyan had feinted, and he missed it. Now he was committed to an attack that simply wouldn't connect. He tried to salge it by turning, but that just turned his face into the path of her fist.

That hurt. Her knee hitting him in the ribs was God damned agony. He went down like a sack of potatoes coughing and wheezing. He was honestly surprised that he wasn't coughing up blood.

Saiyan looked down at the two minor villains with something like contempt.

"You know, I'm not even sure I should bring you pains in the ass in. It almost seems like a crime to take you two idiots off the streets," she grumbled. She knew that, with the docks not exactly a hub of activity, these two paid good money to people to play their minions in some of their videos. Saiyan would honestly hate to be the person that took _another_ source of income away from her dad's friends and acquaintances. Who knew who they would turn to next? The E-Eighty Eights? The Merchants?

"Grah!" she turned her Ki back on, gathering the necessary Chi for flight and lifting into the air, "I'm letting you two go, this time. Consider this a one time only deal, got it?" she glared at Uber until he nodded, "We meet like this again and I bring the hammer down."

With that, she zipped off again, going back to her patrol route, grumbling about stupid shades of grey.

Uber just picked up his partner, carried him into the mocked up space ship. He really had to talk to Leet about picking their targets better.

-9001-

I would like to point out that this story is brought to you by **BijuuDamaBomber**. In particular, the scenes with Uber and Leet just now, and the fact that I am still writing this are due to conversations I've had with them about where the story is going.

Now, Power Levels

Lisa- 231

Ziz- 300/1100

Behemoth- 500/1400

Uber- 25/100

Leet- 12

Taylor- 1941


	7. Chapter 7 Hostilities

I'll bet y'all thought I forgot about the Travelers.

Guess again!

Chapter Seven: Hostilities

Taylor sighed as she locked her books in her locker and closed the door. The summer months had been great. She'd become a hero, she'd killed one of the Endbringers and the worst supervillain team ever, and she had some good friends now in the Wards. They weren't inseparably close, not even, but it just felt nice to have some positive human interaction outside of her father.

When school started it looked like it was gonna be another year of suck, but that changed on the second day of the first term.

Just before classes were to start, one of Emma's old flunkies, a brown haired football player, tried to make Taylor a target again, hoping to use her as an in to dating the model. He seemed to know about the spectacles she'd made of Sophia's previous attempts at bullying her, but either didn't care, or thought he was better than the girl.

Taylor was walking into the school when the boy stood in her path.

"Move," she said, frowning at him, "Please."

"Why don't you make me, freak?" he smirked at her.

The girl rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to sigh. She kept her Ki off as she made the demonstration of her new abilities. Taylor didn't even touch him, just kept glaring as she punched the locker to her side.

The sound of metal being forced out of it's usual shape filled the hall, loud enough to garner attention from everyone in the immediate vicinity.

Taylor pulled her fist out of the irreparably bent locker, her knuckles bleeding and torn, still glaring at the jock that was staring at the damage she had just done, "I said, 'please.' Don't make me ask impolitely."

The young man stepped aside, numbly.

By the end of the day, the tale had grown to idiotic proportions, with Taylor having apparently ripped the locker out of the wall and threatening to use it as a bat to hit the football player with. Taylor had detention for a week for the destruction of school property, but that was the worst of it. She just used the extra time to meditate.

From that point forward, it was too damn boring. She would never go so far as to wish a new villain would attack, but that didn't stop her from thinking about it.

She also decided that, if Mister Gladly was on fire and she had a glass of water, she'd drink it and walk away.

The man, unfortunately, was still one of her teachers. And this year, all three of the girls she liked the least were in her class instead of just one. The SOB had the nerve of putting them together, every time he started a group project. Which was every damn day.

"God damn it!" Taylor finally lost her patience, three weeks in.

"Is there a problem, Taylor?" Mister Gladly asked, trying to put on his best 'I'm the cool Teacher' smile.

"Yes! Several!" she almost yelled at him, "One, I never gave you permission to use my first name. I call you Mister Gladly, as propriety demands, I would appreciate it if you would do the same for me. You are not my friend, or my peer, or my equal. You are my teacher, nothing more, nothing less. Act like it!

"Two," she pointed accusingly at her three partners, "I! Do! Not! Like! Them! If I were to be honest, I hate those three! If they were to suddenly move to anywhere in the damn world that isn't where I'm living, I would host the biggest party on the docks and solicit the Merchants for recreational hallucinogens to celebrate! Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, stop pairing me with them!"

As she had come to expect over the last eight months, give or take, her actions had caused a resounding silence. Gladly was staring at her like she had kicked his crippled puppy. Emma, Sophia and Madison looked less than thrilled about her outburst. Not quite embarrassed, but not exactly enthused to be the center of all _this_ attention.

As for the rest of the class, that's just what happens when a student yells at a teacher. Any teacher.

"But they're your-"

"Don't!" Taylor interrupted the man, glaring at him, "Don't you fucking _dare_ to end that sentence with 'friends'!" she glared at him for another moment more before putting her books back into her backpack, slinging it over her shoulder, and walking out of the class.

"Where do you think you're going?" the man demanded, finally acting authoritative.

"To drop this class and find a _real_ teacher!" the teen shouted back.

It didn't take a long meeting to get her schedule changed, and this time, when the secretary took the paperwork, she didn't try to file it in the paper shredder.

Deciding that the day had already been annoying enough, the girl headed home, thinking about how it would be impossible to take a vacation. Being a hero was a dream come true for her. Especially with what she had triggered with, but, sometimes, she felt like she needed a break from it, and she wasn't even a Ward for more than half a year.

"I suppose," she said, after a moment of thought, "that I could take just one day off to decompress," she began to grin, heading home with a spreading smile, "I wonder if dad would like to go to Hawaii for a day?" She took a turn into an alley, made sure that no one was there to see her, and teleported into her room, "After all, what can happen in one day?"

-9001-

The Door to Lisa's office was there one minute, then gone the next. Shortly afterwards, the Travelers filed in, lead by Trickster, who looked particularly annoyed with her.

"Where's Coil?" he demanded of the blonde.

"He's exploring business opportunities in the south," she said with all the interest of a person doing paperwork while dealing with a bothersome customer, "How can I help you?"

"You can tell us where Coil is!" Trickster almost roared, "He promised to help Noelle, but we've got nothing to show for it."

"Yeah," Lisa said, leaning back in her chair, "He lied about that. He was never going to help her, or you. You were just easily manipulated pawns with some nice powers. He hasn't been looking for a cure for Noelle, he's been looking for a way to 'accidentally' kill her, that would keep you on his side."

The Travelers, as a one, had only two emotions on their faces, shock and anger.

Krouse, Francis, in particular was nearly shaking with rage, "We're leaving," he growled, "And we're taking Noelle with us."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked, folding her arms under her chest, "You know what happened the last time she was out and about," the blonde tsked, shaking her head, "Those poor people. Never even stood a chance.

"Truth is, Noelle is already dead. She died when she got her powers, you've just been too sentimental about the mound of flesh that has her face to let her go," Lisa shrugged, "The best thing you can do, in the memory of the woman she was, is destroy the monster she has become."

Less than a second later, she caught a stone that had been sent flying at her face at the speed of sound. She held it in her hand, glaring at it for a second, before turning that glare on the one responsible, Ballistic.

"That seemed unnecessary."

"Watch your mouth about Noelle," the man said, "It's not her fault she's…" he didn't even know what to say about what she had become, simply trailing off.

"No, it's not her fault," Lisa agreed, picking up the subtle hints with her powers, "It's his." Her pointed look at Trickster was enough to get the others to shift uncomfortably.

"How do you-?"

"You told me," the blonde villainess said quickly, "All of you did. Maybe not directly, but you obviously blame Trickster for what happened to her… Oh, wow, she was your leader, wasn't she? Smart, intuitive, kind. Then she triggered… no, she didn't trigger. Then how-?" her own eyes went wide.

The next thing the Traveler's knew Lisa was in the center of them, then darkness for two of them, Sundancer and Ballistic. Genesis' current form, something more humanoid for walking through the base, simply ceased to exist. Trickster saw her appear and teleported away, just in time to remain conscious.

"The fuck was that?" the man cursed, moving quickly to where Jess had been set up, "What happened?"

"I don't know, but she has Luke and Marissa," the girl said, closing her eyes, "Give me a minute to create something new to go get them."

"Fuck!" Trickster yelled again, "Since when can Tattletale do that? The fuck just happened?!"

"I don't know," the girl said.

"I mean, the bitch just caught a bullet, then teleported at us! The fuck?!"

"I don't know!" Jess yelled back, "Now, shut up and let me concentrate!"

Krouse grunted, pacing back and forth.

This was not how things were supposed to be, damn it! What in the hell was going on?! He needed to get out. Needed to get Noelle out, before that psycho girl did something to her.

He stopped pacing, then, his gaze drifting to the floor. He knew that the woman he loved was several floors below, with a computer in her room that let them speak from time to time.

And she was the key to her own escape. She'd just eat the bitch that had attacked his teammates, and then they'd get away while everyone was dealing with the clones of the girl.

It was a flawless plan.

Completely flawless.

…

That was his story and he was sticking to it.

The man grabbed the laptop and left the room, so Jess wouldn't see and try to stop him. He opened the computer, booting it up, quickly opening the communication program.

"Noelle," he said, "Noelle, baby, can you hear me?"

The view on the screen was dark for a moment, before something moved and he could see a partial view of Noelle. It was just the side of her face. Her eyes were squinting, her hair was matted and greasy, and it looked like she had just woken up.

"Krouse," she breathed.

"Noelle," Trickster spoke urgently, "Listen, things have gone bad here. Coil's gone, and some girl, Tattletale, has captured Luke and Marissa. I'm," he did his best to look distraught, "I'm not even sure they're alive anymore."

"What?" the face turned towards the camera, "No, they, they can't be-"

"I think she's going to come after me next, then you," he told her, "You have to escape, Noelle. You have to break out."

"Krouse, no," the woman on screen almost moaned, "No, I can't you know what will happen if I-"

"No!" the man shouted, looking to the side, "Stay away from me! Sta-" the feed went dead, turning to nothing but static.

"Krouse?" Noelle shook the computer a little, "Krouse?!" she began to wake up fully, parts moving and writhing and twisting. Bubbling up and spilling out, pulled into the main mass again and then it all repeated until the woman, the monster, stood up.

" _ **KROUSE!**_ "

The entire base _felt_ _it_ as more than one hungering mouth shouted that name.

The man that Noelle was worried about looked at the computer he had just broken and grinned. He began teleporting upwards through the building. It would be best not to be at ground zero when _that_ bomb went off.

-9001-

"Oh, damn," Lisa said, feeling real fear for a moment, "Not good." She finished tying up the two Travelers she had managed to capture, then picked up the radio, "Jacobs!"

"Yes, ma'am?" his voice came back, a slight quiver in fear in it.

"Evacuate everyone from sub-basement level five and up. Get everyone out!" she ordered.

"What about-?"

"Anyone on the lower levels are either already dead or it's just going to get more people killed to try to go after them," she told him, quickly, "Now, move!"

"Understood!"

Only a few seconds later, the base rumbled as _something_ started tearing through concrete like it was nothing. The thunder of it was almost as intimidating as the roars that sounded vaguely feminine, if incredibly distorted.

Tattletale placed her hands on the shoulders of the parahumans she had captured and teleported out of the base with them, to another one on the other side of the city.

That done, she ported back, pulling in as much Chi as she could, going down to the floor she knew the monstrous woman would breach next.

Like Saiyan had done to Leviathan, Lisa was planning to hit the deformed cape with as much energy as she possibly could. The purple ball of light, gathering at the end of her finger was growing by the second.

"Tattletale!" the monster screamed as it burst through the floor. It was massive, and monstrous in a way that made the girl think of the myth of Cthulu. And on it's back, pale as a sheet, was the upper torso of a woman, her arms hanging limply until they began merging with the main, pulsating mass. A single, baleful eye glared out of the hair at Tattletale. All over it, the monster began to grow mouths, complete with teeth. " _ **Tattletale!**_ " they all spoke as one before surging forward like a tidal wave of flesh and death.

" _Burning Shot!_ " the villainess called out, firing the beam at the monster.

In just under a second, it had ripped through the bubbling mess of mutated flesh, turning it into so much ash. The blast only lasted two full second, but Lisa could feel the strain as her attack burned a hole under the city, hitting the aquifer underneath the city and sending a roaring rush of water back.

She bent over, resting her hands on her knees, panting a little from the strain when she noticed something horrifying.

Noelle was getting back up. She hadn't destroyed all of her, and she was regenerating. What was already a huge monster proved to be even more immense.

"Fuck me," the blonde breathed. She watched as mass shifted and bubbled. Burnt flesh was swallowed by more sweaty pink rolls. Mouths formed and opened, long tentacle tongues lashing about, looking for anything organic to eat.

Before she could see more, the water finally made it into her base and Tattletale had to teleport away.

"Fuck," she said again, looking down at the construction site that was her base. She watched as it rumbled for a moment as the defensive measures took place and it became little more than a crater in the ground. "That's not going to be enough… God damn it!" she yelled to the sky, "I have to call the fucking heroes!"

-9001-

On a beach chair, in naught but a bikini, Taylor Hebert lay there, sunglasses replacing her usual corrective lenses.

Nearby, watching some buxom twenty something play volleyball, was her dad. He had a drink with a little pink umbrella in it, the cup shaped like a coconut. He took a long sip, not even hiding his interest in the women, juggling as they were.

He had at first, but Taylor simply said, "Look. Not like it's a crime. Mom… mom wouldn't mind, as long as it was just looking."

The man had nodded at that. It took him a while, and a few more alcoholic beverages, but eventually the man had settled into watching them.

"Oh, wow," Danny grinned, watching one of the more top heavy girls running, "She's… Talented."

"Mmhmm," the tightly muscled teen superhero agreed, humming appreciatively.

The man set down his drink and turned to look at his daughter, who was blushing as red as a cherry.

"Taylor," he started, "are you…?"

"I-I," she took a breath and looked at her father, "Maybe? I, uh, might like… both?"

The man slowly nodded. The girl could practically hear the rusty hinges squealing when he did so.

"Right," he said, "Well then…" he turned around, his eyes watching the women play in their bikini's again, "Never speak about it until it's obtrusively, offensively apparent?"

"Indeed."

-9001-

Despite her cry about needing to call for reinforcement from the Protectorate, Lisa was not going to have to do the calling herself.

After only a few minutes, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Assault, Battery, and Velocity were on the scene of the collapsed building. Before even a single one of them could start investigating what happened, Tattletale teleported down in front of them.

"Okay," she said, watching as they all reacted by going into fighting stances, "I need some help here."

"Help?" Armsmaster almost snorted, "You're under arrest."

Tattletale frowned, crossing her arms, "This isn't the time, There is an S-class threat in that crater, and she's only been stalled by the building blowing up. If she get's out of the immediate vicinity, who knows how many people she will kill, consume, or clone," she looked over at Miss Militia, "The clones will have all of your powers, all your memories, and be like comic book evil twins. Twisted, sadistic, dedicated to killing everything you love, then you yourself."

"You're not joking," Assault said after a moment.

In answer to that, the ground burst outwards behind Tattletale exploded upwards, and the fleshy monster that had once been a gamer from a different dimension.

"Nope," she said needlessly, "Not joking," she turned around and fired a chi blast at the monster, ripping it asunder, "As you can see, I've gained some new, familiar, abilities," the monster's flesh began bubbling and churning, regrowing everything it had just lost, even the upper half of Noelle growing out of it's back, "And you can also see that I'm going to need some time to figure out where to send my next attack to really kill her. You guys get to be my distraction while I play energy blast darts with her. Do _not_ call in the Triumvirate," she warned with a glare, "I don't know, and do not _want_ to know what kind of secrets those three have, but their clones would spout all of them off, just to hurt the originals. Here she comes." Tattletale gave the monster one more blast to slow it down, then teleported skyward.

It took only a few seconds for the Protectorate to snap into gear.

"Assault, start hitting it with anything you can find. Keep your grouping tight, no need for unnecessary collateral damage. Miss Militia, do the same, everything you can think of that will help slow her down. Velocity, Battery, go evacuate everyone in the surrounding area. I've got to retrieve something that might help us out," he went back to his bike, storing his halberd. Seconds before he could start it up, just out of sight of the roaring and screaming monster, Tattletale appeared again.

"I forgot to mention," she said, "Her boyfriend, Trickster, is around. He didn't trigger. None of the Travelers did. They took something and got powers. You want insight into the Case Fifty Three's, you catch him." She was gone again, high in the air and firing bright lines of energy down. Each one was enough to make a small explosion, and easily cut through the ball of flesh, but none of them seemed to be more than an annoyance to the creature.

The man growled, then started his bike and zoomed off, speaking into his helmet, an order to Dragon to send in her UAV's to use against the monster.

In the sky, Lisa was cursing her luck. Of course she would be facing off against an enemy that could regenerate. Of course she wouldn't be able to gather enough to Chi to kill it in one shot. Of _fucking_ course her power would go on and on about their being a core, but not be able to tell her where it was.

At this point, Lisa was beginning to lose her patience. It would be so much easier if she could just forget about her conscience telling her it would be a horrible thing to kill the monster, if it meant losing the whole city, too.

"I'm too fucking weak," she grumbled, but continued raining down purple bolts of death on the creature.

After nearly fifteen minutes of constant battle, the containment zone not being breached to to the efforts of Tattletale, Assault, and Miss Militia, Armsmaster returned, he hopped off his bike, picked up his halberd and pointed it at the roaring mass of anger and flesh.

With Dragon's spybot high in the air, he used the targeting data from that and his own suit to look for a good place to fire.

Ten seconds later, with a soft 'pflit!' sound, a dart the size of a man's finger hit the monster, that had been codenamed Echidna, and was quickly absorbed.

"Start hitting her with everything you've got," the Tinker yelled, "I've dosed it with a more potent version of the Tranquilizer I designed for Lung!" He pulled another halberd out of his bike, opening the blades on it, all of them starting to hum and glow.

Tattletale watched all of this with a critical eye. Normally, she would place more faith in the work of a Tinker, but her power told her that Echidna didn't even really have a circulatory system. Still, there would be no harm in firing more attacks down at the monster.

In fact, this would be perfect for a test of something she had been trying to work on.

Taking a few deep breaths, she gathered her Ki, enhancing all the muscles in her arm, and her eyes and brain to unbelievable levels. It took nearly a minute of concentration before she felt she was at the right level to try this.

When she opened her eyes again they were glowing purple, and the world was moving at a snail's pace. Even Velocity and Battery were moving only inches in a second instead of hundreds of feet.

The villainess then pointed her finger at Echidna and fired a lance of purple energy. It fell through the air, piercing the monster's flesh just as easily as those before it. Even in the slow motion vision she had, she could see it as the creature immediately began to regenerate from the damage. So, she fired again.

" _Burning Rain!_ "

And again. And again. And again and again and again and _again_.

One after the other, each of her attacks fell upon the parahuman woman from another world, one after the other, until there was little left at all to regenerate.

To anyone else, it would look like the villainess fired a continuous stream of purple death down at the creature until only a few useless lumps of wriggling flesh were left.

Then, to everyone's horror, those lumps began to regenerate.

Then, much to everyone's great relief, they stopped moving. After only a few moments, they started to wither and die.

"No!" Tricker yelled, teleporting in and holding a greyed piece of meat to himself, "You killed her! You ki-"

"That's quite enough out of you," Tattletale said, appearing behind him and smacking him with her left hand, her right hanging limply at her side. Blood flowed from her nose and her eyes were incredibly bloodshot. It had not been a good day for her. She quickly teleported away, leaving Krouse behind, before any of the heroes got the bright idea to take her in, in her weakened state.

-9001-

Taylor gave a relieved sigh as she finally laid down in her own bed.

Her day had been great. She yelled at an idiot teacher, dropped his class, went to Hawaii, bonded with her dad over their preferences in women, failed at surfing, and went to a luau. She and Danny had even gotten a massage, just before heading home. It was a little awkward at first, but feeling the kinks in her muscles come loose was almost orgasmic.

"Too bad it's back to the grind, tomorrow," the girl sighed, her arms behind her head as she smiled peacefully. She'd have to take days off more often.

-9001-

So, that's done. And Jess died when the base imploded. Sorry. it just kind of happened.

Power Levels!

Trickster/Krouse- 45

Ballistic/Luke- 70

Sundancer/Marissa- 13/900

Genesis/Jess- 3/?

Echidna/Noelle- 670

Assault- 150

Battery- 180

Velocity- 8/130

Tattletale/Lisa- 351

Saiyan/Taylor- 2952

 **Bonus Content!**

Uber and Leet were packing up and heading out. Their thrashing at the hands of Saiyan had been a wake up call.

Not to quit their life of villainy. Gods, no! That was just way too much fun.

Instead, it was their hint to get the hell out of Brockton Bay. There were plenty of other places. Places without out world cracking heros. Places like Las Vegas. Uber had heard good things about Vegas and the types of capes that got along there. The flashy pair of video game themed villains would fit right in, there.

There was a metallic twang, just like when Saiyan had teleported in front of them and Leet screamed like a little girl, diving behind Uber.

Uber just froze up and quinted his eyes shut, waiting for the pain to start.

"Cute," came a voice that was decidedly _not_ Saiyan's, "So, you're leaving?"

Uber opened his eyes to see a blonde girl in a purple cat suit. She was looking around their lair, seemingly completely uninterested.

"Yeah, and you would be too, if you were smart," he grumbled going back to packing his most valuable possessions. He ignored the glare that the girl shot him.

"I have a commission for you," she said, deciding to let the subtle insult slide.

"Not interested," Let spoke this time, packing more stuff into one of the things that he never used on camera, for fear of it being appropriated by anyone else. Essentially, it was a Bag of Holding. It had nearly unlimited storage capacity and the weight never increased. The only problem was, unless he was willing to pour the whole thing out somewhere, he would only ever get random things from it.

"I'll pay you ten million, in cash," she said, dragging her finger along one of their older creations, then grimacing at the grime that stuck to her digit.

"What do you need?" Leet asked, now quite interested in what she needed.

The girl pulled a photo out of thin air, or so it seemed, and lay it down on the table, "If you can build this, I'll give you ten million. If you can do it in under two months, I'll double it to twenty."

"No freakin' way," Uber breathed, looking at the picture, while Leets eyes grew wide, followed by a face splitting grin.

"Deal!" the Tinker said, enthusiastically shaking her hand, "But I'll need two million of it now, for parts."

"Done, it will be delivered tomorrow," the girl said, then teleported away with another twang.

"No freakin' way," Uber repeated, still staring at the picture.

It was a picture of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber that was abused all to hell in DBZ during the Cell arc.

And Leet was going to build it.

"No freakin' way."


	8. Chapter 8 Scion, Part One

By the time this chapter is posted, a new picture should be posted on the thumbnail. Said picture is the mark on the back of Saiyan's hoodie.

Chapter Eight: Scion, Part One

"So, Tattletale," Clockblocker said, "The girl that can pull anyone's secrets out of their heads, the chick that can figure out your safe combination by hearing your voice of the phone, the outright villain that can crack your WIFI security by looking at it for a couple of minutes," he gesticulated wildly at that point, "That one? That's the girl out there who figured out how to use your abilities?"

"Yup," Taylor said unworriedly.

"And you aren't panicking about this because…?"

Would you like to know how long it took me to get this strong?" the girl asked, looking up at the teen boy, "It took seven months, four if you start counting from when I unlocked my Ki. By that point I was able to take on Lung. Another month and a half before Leviathan because of extenuating circumstances. Tattletale, even if she has my rate of growth, will take months to get to my level. Months that I won't be sitting by idly and doing nothing. By the time she's as strong as I am now, I'll be several times that."

"And if she figures out someone else's ability? What then?"

"Yeah," Taylor said, shaking her head, "I don't think it's going to work that way. My ability is… special."

"Yeah, well," the boy sat down with a huff, "Pardon me if I'm not excited about having to go up against her, even if she's only fractionally as strong as you."

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that," Taylor said, "At least, not often."

"Why do you believe that?" Armsmaster made his presence known at that point. The man seemed even more bitter than ever, for some reason, though he did very well at keeping it professional with her, outside of the training room.

"Well, for starters, she must have been boosting herself up since we caught her, back in July," the others nodded, "And she's clearly strong enough to take on whatever the hell Echidna was, with only a little assistance to keep the monster contained. She'd probably wipe the floor with most of the Brockton Bay Protectorate with little effort."

"Then why hasn't she?"

"That's the question, isn't it?" Taylor said, "She has more power than most brutes and she hasn't done anything with it. That we know of."

Dennis opened his mouth to say something about that, but then closed it again when Armsmaster held up his hand.

"What do you mean by that? Do you know of something she has done with your energy techniques?"

"No," the girl shook her head, putting down the book she was being kept from reading, "I mean I think I know what she's doing. I know for a fact, strong as I am, there has gotta be a cape out there who could kill me, if not face to face, then when I least expect it. I haven't had a chance to test my sensing against Strangers, but I bet it will work just as effectively there as anywhere else. Also, there is nothing in my repetoire that would stop Heartbreaker from taking me under his control," she shuddered a little at the thought of that subtle monster, "I bet that Tattletale is thinking something along the lines of using her powers only to consolidate her power, and pull the occasional heist for fun, rather than waging a war against the PRT and the Protectorate."

Armsmaster rubbed his chin for a moment, thinking about that.

"Frankly, if we had to worry about her making a move, she would have done it by now," Taylor said, shrugging and burying her nose in her book again, "She'll strike sometime down the road. Probably enough to get our attention, but not enough to get a kill order. She's too smart for that."

"So, what do we do now?" Dennis asked.

"Arrest her when you can, just like all the other annoying criminals and gangsters," she turned a page in the book.

-9001-

The earth rumbled and cracked and bled lava, seconds before it belched forth a demon of hatred, fire, and death. The monster with lava and obsidian for skin took a deep, whistling breath, took a thunderous step forward, and roared his presence for all to hear and fear. Lightning arched off the spikes on its back. Its single, baleful eye glowed with the anger born of it's absolute loathing of everything human.

When the roar was heard, everything around it for half a mile shook and broke apart. Anyone who didn't have a high enough Brute rating would have been killed by it, their organs ruptured due to the physical resonation of the sound.

Fortunately, none were there to greet the Behemoth as it made ground in New Delhi. Except for one.

Floating high above the monster, Saiyan hovered, looking down at the monster that had been completely out of her league before. In just three months she had gone from barely being able to beat Leviathan to a whole new level.

Briefly, she wondered if this was what it felt like to be Scion.

She shook away that thought and hefted the weapon that had been given to her by Armsmaster. It was a hyper dense javelin, so heavy that she never would have been able to lift it without her Ki, no matter how long she trained. As it was, even with her Ki powering her muscles far beyond human norms, she could feel the weight in her hand.

She held it in the perfect thrower's stance, having watched a video of an Olympic gold medal winner throwing a javelin to gain the skill. The amount of energy she was pumping through her body was so intense that it was actually causing steam to rise from her form.

One by one, the groups of muscle necessary to throw, activated. By the time Taylor released the weapon, it had broken the sound barrier so many times that even Saiyan felt the shock, even more so when the heavy piece of metal achieved double the speed of light.

Behemoth didn't even have a chance to realize that its intended battleground was barren of opponents before the javelin hit and the world around it exploded.

It was only due to Saiyan herself, blanketing four square miles of land, just outside the city with Chi so thick a human couldn't breath that stopped the entire world from exploding.

And it _wasn't enough._

Saiyan's eyes widened behind the goggles. Reduced to nothing more than a quivering frame, the monster still lived. It looked more like a burnt stick figure than the creature of cape nightmares. It had no eyes, no mouth, no claws. It stumbled into a standing position, it's thin, crisped frame moving jerkily as what was left of its head swiveled to, somehow, look at Saiyan.

The girl would have taken a fearful step back, then, had she been on the ground.

Seconds later, Scion appeared within her range, and her thoughts were bombarded with information from her power.

For one, it told her that she could never move like him. He wasn't human, he was never human. He didn't use Ki or Chi. He flew because of an energy source that was filtered to him out of thin air. Following that energy source, it appeared to come from an alternate reality. Her Chi latched onto that thread of energy and her world turned into pain as her power tried to understand the motion of _everything._

She screamed and fell out of the sky, beating her own head with her fists. When that didn't lessen the pain, she tried bashing it into the ground, causing a fifty foot wide crater to form and creating ripples that were registered on the Richter Scale.

The pain lasted centuries, seconds, as her power told her things that she was never meant to understand and her brain tried to deal with it.

After an eternity, a few scant moments, it latched onto one thing. Scion. The _real_ Scion.

He was a creature so massive it was a planet, all on its own. Its eyes saw not one world but thousands, millions. It drifted in the cosmos, shedding pieces of itself, gifting them to lesser lifeforms for a purpose she couldn't yet begin to guess. Even her power couldn't tell her what was going through the hyper massive monster's mind.

The knowledge itself seemed to shatter her power, even. It broke under the strain, then reformed, stronger than ever, and suddenly she understood.

She understood what it was, how it worked. She knew that it had been traveling through hundreds of trillions of universes, for an inestimable amount of time. It was alone, but not the only one of its kind. She could see that it was… incomplete. It was only half of what it could be. Somewhere out there, its other half contained the rest of its powers.

And she knew, in her core, that it was _not_ there for the betterment of mankind.

When Saiyan opened her eyes again, seeing her native reality, it was to the sight of Scion staring down at her.

And again, she screamed.

-9001-

So, this chapter was kind of short. It was mostly about what happened just now.

Power Levels!

Dennis/Clockblocker- 30

Taylor/Saiyan- 6826

Scion- 150,000/?


	9. Chapter 9 Power

Chapter 9: Power

Lisa stood there, arms crossed over her chest, rather unimpressed with what she was seeing.

"I give you two million dollars, and this is what you have to show for it?" she asked, incredulously, glaring at the Tinker that had built it.

'This' was a patchwork metal door that was connected to thirty seven car batteries. It had literally been cobbled together from metal corrugated roofing, steel siding, and… was that the adhesive paneling of a station wagon? Yes, yes it was.

"Hey," Leet all but whined, "Don't judge a book by it's cover. Ow!" The parahuman gamer glared at his partner.

"What he means to say," Uber said, glaring right back at Leet, "Is that we spent more money than we thought on the internal setting and had to settle for what we could cobble together for the door. It works perfectly."

"And how accurate is it?" The girl asked, obviously still dubious, "How often will I have to replace these batteries?"

"It's one day, one year, just like the show. A full twenty four hours real time equals thirteen, twenty eight day, months chamber time," Leet said, "And you don't actually need to do anything with the batteries. You can get rid of them actually, We needed them to open the door initially, but now it runs off of itself. This thing will still be here when we are long dead and gone."

"Sweet," she said, nodding to herself. She pulled her phone out of a hidden pocket and sent a text. Thirty seconds later, a tall man in black fatigues, combat boots, dark sunglasses, and a black kevlar vest came in. His face was set in a constant scowl. In one hand he held what was obviously a Tinker-tech rifle and in the other was a metal suitcase.

"I asked you to get it done in under two months, and you just barely scraped by with a few days to spare, boys," Lisa said, turning to the two small time villains, "Twenty million, as promised, in untraceable bills. Inside the case is a key to the vault in Las Vegas that holds it all."

"How did you-?" Leet began, but Uber interrupted him.

"Thanks. Here's the instruction manual," the taller of the two parahumans handed the girl a two page document, "Hopefully, see ya never." He grabbed the suitcase, Leet and pulled him into the space ship that they had decided to keep after their ill fated run in with Saiyan. If they were lucky, this would be the last time that they would have to deal with a ridiculously overpowered teenager.

If they were lucky.

Tattletale turned back to the door, then looked to the merc she trusted more than any of the others under her employ.

"Jacobs," she said, "I want thirty of our best guarding this door for the next twenty four hours. If anyone gets in, fire them all and have them sent to Ash Beast's territory in Africa."

"Yes, ma'am," the mercenary nodded, speaking into his radio. In under ten minutes, the required mercs were in the mostly abandoned warehouse.

"Alright, boys and girls," the blonde said with another foxy grin, "Keep this place secure and you've earned yourself a bonus," she didn't say anything more than that before she opened the doors to an artificial dimension with accelerated time.

-9001-`

"What happened?" Alexandria asked, staring through a monitor at the girl sleeping fitfully in one of the provided rooms at the Protectorate HQ in New York. The poor girl was tossing and turning and whimpering. Whatever she was dreaming about was disturbing the teen enough that she was subconsciously activating her Ki.

"We're not sure," Armsmaster said, equally focused on the teen girl. As much as he was… annoyed by her, he didn't want any harm to come to her. "She had hit Behemoth with the javelin, it was almost enough to kill him, then Scion showed up, that's where everything went sideways." The Tinker turned around to face a screen on the wall in the office they were using to monitor Taylor. A screen slid forward out of the panneling, and started playing a video.

For a few moments, it was nothing but blinding white and red light. After a few seconds that faded and they could see the heavily damaged form of Behemoth struggling to move, just before Scion appeared. The moment he did, the miniscule form of Saiyan on the video start screaming and moving spastically until she fell out of the air and started beating her head against the ground. The impacts were so great that the camera was vibrating, even from the obvious distance.

At the same time, Scion finished off Behemoth with barely any effort, thrusting one golden hand into the core of the beast and crushing it into nothing. Afterwards, the strongest hero of them all, and what Alexandria knew to be the true enemy, approached Saiyan. The girl stopped screaming a little bit before he came over to her, looked up at the creature wearing the form of a man, and started the screaming anew.

The video cut off when the girl fled so quickly that it caused a massive sonic boom, destroying everything within four hundred yards of herself.

"She was next seen in the lobby here, blabbering about giant demons that were going to kill us all. She passed out two hours ago," Armsmaster summed up the last eight hours.

The female member of the Triumvirate hummed in thought, watching the video play again. It was barely two minutes long, but so much happened in such a short time. She could only guess at what happened.

Perhaps it was time for a consultation.

"Keep her under observation, if she starts speaking clearly again, alert me immediately," Alexandria told Armsmaster. He nodded to her, turning back to the screen that showed Taylor sleeping.

The Brute-Mover left that room, heading to a secluded office. Once she was absolutely sure she was alone and unobserved she spoke.

"Door," she commanded to the empty room, and a glowing, rectangular portal of light opened into the room. She stepped through, and stood at the other end of a desk in a poorly lit office. There was a somewhat aged woman sitting behind the desk, while a dusky woman in a black suit stood next to her.

"We can guess why you've come," the aged woman said, "The girl, Saiyan, she's had a breakdown, yes?"

"Yes, Director Mother," Alexandria agreed, "I want to know, how does this affect our plans?"

"Contessa," the woman, Director Mother said.

The Italian woman nodded, then looked the hero in the eye and said, "She has realized the truth about Zion. Her mind is coping with knowledge that she was never meant to know about him, let alone the rest of existence. However, it is imperative that she patrol Brockton Bay in one week. I am unable to extrapolate why this is important, only that it must happen. If Saiyan does this, Zion will be defeated before the year is out."

Alexandria's jaw dropped. This was huge. Previously, they had nothing, no good way to defeat the true enemy. Everything they did so far was only a stalling method, a hope to extend their time and pray that something would come about that would allow them some small ray of hope.

And now, with Saiyan, apparently that hope had come to fruition. Or it would, if she was capable of patrolling in one week's time.

"I understand," the world's third most powerful woman said solemnly. Another dimensional gateway appeared behind her and she floated through it, already planning on how she was going to get the girl back on the beat.

Hopefully Doctor Yamada would be able to help.

-9001-

Three days later, Taylor sat in a comfortable chair, staring at nothing really as she listened to the woman, one Jessica Yamada, speak to her calmly. The psychologist had been trying to get her to talk about what happened for twenty minutes. Two hours and twenty minutes, if you counted the other two visits they had, in the previous days.

Doctor Yamada, though, was a stubborn woman. And dedicated. She would have you believe that she was a successful practitioner because of said dedication, but really, it was her stubbornness that had won her most of her achievements.

That did not lessen them in any measure, though. She had helped many people, parahuman and normal human alike, overcome some of their worst moment and become productive, but there would always be another case, and she would always give it her best.

So, even though Saiyan, Taylor, was continuing with the mute act, Doctor Yamada stubbornly went on with the session, determined to help this girl overcome whatever horror was plaguing her.

"So, Taylor," the woman began, "Have you ever-"

"Have you ever thought about God?" the teen finally spoke, not looking up.

"Pardon?" the woman asked after a second.

"God," Taylor slowly looked up, staring directly at Jessica, "Have you ever thought about him? What he's like? What his agenda is?"

"I can't say I have given it too much thought," Yamada admitted, "I suppose I think of him like most people do. A distant, omnipotent entity that oversees the universe, looking to give mankind enlightenment."

Taylor nodded, looking away from the woman, "Yeah. I started to hate God. Around the time my mother died, I decided I didn't like him, cause he took my mom from me. Of all the people out there that deserved to die- Jack Slash, the Endbringers, even the Merchants- and he picks my mom," a tear rolled out of the girl's eye that she quickly whisked away, "I almost got over that when Emma turned on me. She started using everything she could to tear me down. Things I told her in confidence. Things I never even told my mom. I'm Bi, by the way. Emma knew before I did. She asked me about it when we were twelve. She'd been using that as the _least_ hurtful weapon against me, before I triggered.

"And then I _did_ trigger," a grin, wide and boisterous, crossed her face, "I triggered with the best power ever, it made me into what I am today. I thought God finally decided to give me a break. I thought it was all looking up, ya know? The last ten, or so, months have been the absolute best of my life," the girl's face went blank again, hollow eyes looking directly at Yamada, "Then I saw him."

"Saw who?" Yamada asked calmly.

"Scion, God," Taylor said, "He's not a kind, omniscient being that wishes the best for us all. He's a monster. He wants to kill us all, slowly, painfully. He wants to take everything we know and love and watch it burn, not for some hatred, or grudge he holds against us for our ruination of his planet. He wants to do this because it is _convenient,_ " the girl was obviously haunted by this, "He _will_ do this, he plans on ending it all, at some point. Our powers are his. He gave them to us. He's going to take them back and scorch the Earth clean of all life in the process."

"Why do you believe this?" the doctor asked, having been furiously scribbling in her notebook.

"Because I saw him. I saw the real Scion," Saiyan said, "That golden body he uses isn't even a sliver of his true self. He's massive. Huge in a way I thought only planets could be. It's…" she searched for the right word, "Incomprehensible. The human mind can't truly capture the scope of him. We'll make comparisons, put numbers together to quantify it, to make it smaller, but we can't truly understand it. Even now, it's fading from my mind. I just can't handle the truth of it. One day, I'll just say he was the size of Jupiter, or some other pitiable comparison, and believe it was that simple," the girl sighed, "He's so _powerful_. There are no words to describe it. No simile to use, no comparison to point to," Taylor looked at her hands, clenching them before her eyes, gathering her thoughts, "The only way to quantify him, to file him, is as God. And God wants us dead for his convenience."

-9001-

Four days later, Taylor was pulling on her mask again. It was a rather large improvement, compared to when she had first come back from India. In just four days, from the time she had actually started participating in the therapy, and she was being encouraged to patrol again. She was told that it would be part of returning to normality.

Normality was good. Normality was freakin awesome. Some normalcy in her life would let her start training again. And she _needed_ to train. Scion was going to decide to end it all one day, and if she wasn't ready when he did, _everything_ would die.

She pulled on her boots, and tied her sash into place, deciding to dress normally instead of using her _Clothes Beam_ for the sake of putting off the patrol for even longer.

As much as she wanted to go on with her life and training, she was actually somewhat worried that she was going to snap at some criminal and just blast him to ashes. She wouldn't be too torn up if it was Hookwolf, or maybe Skidmark, but a normal human mugger? A guy who was forced into thievery because his family was starving? She didn't want to hurt someone like that.

Still, she suited up and prepared to head out, not knowing that twenty three hours and fifteen minutes ago, Tattletale had entered a dimensional pocket with an accelerated rate of time.

"This is your route," Miss Militia handed the young woman a map of Brockton Bay. It had a long blue line that cut a figure eight, with a few detours, all around the residential and business sectors of the seaside city. "Radio in, every fifteen minutes, as usual," the dusky skinned woman said, her gaze softening as she looked at the most powerful, most fragile girl she had ever met, "Will you be okay?"

"Yeah," Taylor nodded, then again, firmer, "Yes. I'm going to be okay. I'll be back to one hundred in no time," she handed back the route, having memorized it, "I'll be back in a few hours." THe young woman moved to the roof of the Protectorate HQ and quickly flew off.

Thirty minutes had passed and it was proving to be a rather boring beat. Honestly, she shouldn't have expected much, even in her home city. At least, not in the residential district. Most of the real criminals operated out of the docks. A few had business down town, but almost no one did anything in the suburbs. It was part of the unwritten rules that you didn't attack anyone in their unmasked life. That was only if you weren't so stupid as to broadcast your identity to the world. Running a parahuman crimewave out of the garage of your home was about as obvious as unmasking yourself and giving out your name and home address on live television.

She was just about to radio in when something hit her.

That was a bit of a deception. Made it sound like someone threw a water balloon at her.

No. Something impacted the side of Saiyan's face and her world spun uncontrollably. Stars swam in her vision. Her ears buzzed with the sound of a continuous bell ringing.

"Hi," the voice of another girl overcame the ringing once Saiyan had finally stabilized her flight.

Floating in the air across from her was a blonde teen, a somewhat manic grin splitting her face in two. She was wearing a familiar purple catsuit, but the body inside it was vastly different from what she had last seen. For one, the blonde hair that had previously come down to just her chin, came down to Tattletale's chin, was halfway to her posterior. Her entire body had an appearance similar to a granite sculpture of a female bodybuilder. Her stomach was tightly defined, her legs corded, her arms not quite bulging, but radiating power none the less. The Thinker had also slipped some new additions into her normal attire. The first was a grey jacket, with a patch over her her left breast that showed a grinning jackal head in silhouette. The second was the black, fingerless gloves she had over her deceptively delicate hands.

"Tattletale," Saiyan said, pulling her Ki up, her body glowing red, her glower visible even through her mask, "That was a mistake."

"Really?" the young woman asked errantly, "A mistake you say? And why is that?" She walked forward. That is to say, even though she was floating in the sky, the girl made the effort to look like she was walking on the air. For what reason, Taylor would never be able to guess.

Saiyan streaked forward, intent on putting Tattletale down in one hit. Her fist slammed into the side of the blonde's jaw and the impact sounded like the thunder crack of a truly monstrous lightning bolt.

"Oh, the pain," the blonde girl mocked, " _The pain!_ " she reached up, faster than Taylor could follow and flicked her on the forehead. It was only her own Thinker ability that allowed her to anticipate the force of the attack and prevent it from taking her head clean off her shoulders.

As it was, the girl was sent flying, several times faster than sound, her head pounding with severe pain. After only a few seconds, she smacked into the side of a mountain. The explosion rocked the natural formation down to its core. The actual impact cleared the entirety of one side of trees and wildlife, leaving nothing but a two hundred meter crater. At its center, buried another ten feet down, Saiyan had to struggle to pull herself out of the mountain. After a few agonizing seconds, she broke free of the rock. Her mask was torn, her upper body burnt and bruised, and her breathing was ragged.

"The fuck was that?" the teen asked.

"That was me."

Taylor nearly screamed, startled as she was. She hadn't even felt it when Tattletale arrived. One moment she was nowhere to be seen, the next, she was sitting in the air, drinking coffee.

"Mmm, coffee," the villainess almost moaned, "Do you realize how long it's been since I had a decent cup of joe? No? I'm not surprised. You're probably trying to figure out why I'm sooo much stronger right now. I don't blame you, I'd be wracking my brain over it too." Suddenly she was in Taylor's face, her grin as wide as ever, "Boop!"

She finger flicked the hero again, sending her _through_ the mountain. She didn't get too far, because Tattletale intercepted her and kicked her skywards. Saiyan couldn't breathe, she was hit so hard. Her body started to go into panic mode, until she forced it to calm back down.

By the time that had happened, Tattletale was there again, pulling back for another, horribly telegraphed, punch.

Boosting herself to the max, Saiyan flowed around the punch, rocketing a machinegun series of kicks into the villain's upper body. She hit her thousands of times, tens of thousands.

Just like before, there was more thunder, a crack for each kick.

Tattletale was rocked back with each blow, but Taylor didn't let up for a second.

"YaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" the teen hero shouted her fury to the heavens as she continued the attack, going ever faster. She had to beat her, she had to win, she had to-

Her thought train was broken when Tattletale caught her foot in one hand. The other girl was even straining to hold it there while Saiyan was shaking with the effort of trying to free herself.

"Bored now," the blonde said, "My turn," the sinister hiss in her tone made the hero feel fear. Fear like she felt when she realized what Scion was.

Tattletale started pulling forth all of her Ki, everyone ounce of it. The edges of her body started becoming outlined in the purple light of her own power, the Chi she could call forth becoming so thick that Saiyan was having trouble staying in the air.

Seconds passed and the pressure that the villainess was putting out showed no signs of slowing down, It only grew, and grew, _and grew!_

And Taylor could see it all. She could see, and understand, and _know_ exactly how powerful the other girl was.

The villain was so high above her that it was worse than hopeless. This was even _worse_ than Scion.

And yet, even Tattletale, as she was now, would still not be enough to kill the true body of the deity that was the golden man.

If anything, that only brought Saiyan deeper into her despair. It only furthered her regretful understanding of just how impossible it was going to be to even to try to stop Scion from destroying everything.

Taylor had been on the cusp of madness just after she saw Scion. This pushed her over that edge.

Tears leaking out of her eyes, mixing with the blood coming from her nose and busted lip, she flung herself at the villain. She knew it was useless. In the very depths of her soul, she knew there was absolutely nothing she could do to Tattletale. That cursed shard of the evil god in her brain gave her an absolute understanding of the assisted suicide she was committing.

But that was just it. She wanted to die. She wanted it to end. There was nothing she could do to stop the coming apocalypse. She couldn't even stop a small time villain on her own turf.

Her scream rocked the world in a way that would have made Behemoth jealous when she threw herself at Tattletale. The air itself was colored with her insane rage.

The villainess was actually shocked out of her immense display, taking the coming attacks with shock. They still didn't hurt, but what she was seeing, what her own intuitive Thinker ability was showing her, brought back a pain from her past that she only wished she was over.

Saiyan wanted to die.

"Come on!" the hero roared at her, powering up Chi blasts and firing them rampantly, " _Come on!"_ she streaked in, slamming titanic attack after titanic attack into every part of the blonde that she could, "Do it! _End it!_ _ **KILL ME!**_ " She kept attacking. Hitting and punching and blasting and screaming. She kept going until her knuckles bled and her voice was hoarse and pushed herself further still. She pushed and pushed, going on and on.

After minutes, her power began to give out. She had long since lost her voice, but still kept trying to scream and rage against the villain. She pounded the butts of her fists weakly against the shorter girl, her body being wracked with the sobs she could no longer vocalize.

When her legs finally gave out, and she could no longer stand, she hid her face in her bloody hands, still crying and shaking.

Lisa would admit that, when she first got out of the Hyperbolic Chamber, she was not in her right mind. A year of solitude had driven her a little batty. Getting out, showing off her power. It was supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be the spur that drove Saiyan into getting her own chamber, or something, to match her growth.

But now, the girl genuinely wanted to die. She was giving up, and her beating at the hands of Tattletale was the final straw that drove her to it.

If someone didn't step in now, didn't do something to give back her hope for a better future, the girl would implode and commit suicide.

Letting go of her Ki and her Chi, Tattletale- no, _Lisa_ \- approached Saiyan. She didn't even hesitate to pull the younger girl into an embrace, rubbing her back and cooing gentle sounds into her ear.

She would shamelessly admit to using her power, pushing it to its limit, trying to find ways to soothe the girl, to bring her back from that edge. If this was all she had to do, she'd do it thousands of times over.

"Shhhhh," she whispered to the other girl, her own eyes a little glassy with the weight of the emotions that were pouring out into the air, "It's gonna be okay. It will all be okay."

-9001-

There were a _lot_ of Italics in this chapter.

Power Levels!

Taylor/Saiyan- 6826

Lisa/Tattletale- 930/9,413,444


	10. Chapter 10 Training

Since the main complaint/question of the last chapter is about Lisa's power level, I guess I can be lenient and give y'all an explanation.

It goes like this. The average human being, once they have access to Ki and Chi, gains power by fifteen percent per month. It takes one full month of training- practicing the katas, strength and flexibility training, and meditation to improve their Ki pool- to increase their power by fifteen percent. That means they don't do anything but train for that month. And before all that, they have to have years of experience in the martial arts before they can unlock their Ki.

With this kind of growth rate, if the humans in DBZ did _nothing_ but train, every single day, for four years and four months, they could easily take down Frieza. And that's if absolutely nothing distracted them from the training and nothing went wrong.

Krillin, the only one who actually saw Frieza, had one year and one month to get to that level. He wasn't even on Gohan's level by the time it all went down. And for a month, he couldn't have trained without bumping into Bulma and Gohan or causing damage to their ship.

Saiyans actually have _less_ static growth than a human, their only major improvement happening when they are nearly killed then brought back. Training in improved gravity works for them, for a time, because it literally destroys them, over and over, and they get healed back to top form with a sensu bean. After a time, the hyper gravity stops working, and they start to level off. Having a training partner of equal level, so they can beat one another to near death then revive one another is the best way for a saiyan to improve. That is why Vegeta isn't strong enough to defeat Goku, he won't accept help.

Through the use of her Parahuman ability, Taylor received the equivalent of years of Martial experience, and brute forced the activation of her Ki. From there, having only to focus on her meditation and physical training, she started growing by fifteen percent _each week!_ She has four times the growth rate of a normal human.

Tattletale, Lisa, was able to intuit this as well. It even allows her to correctly guess shortcuts she can take to improve her Ki pool faster. Her ability is less on the physical side, giving her more Ki and Chi strength than Taylor, but less physical. However the overall growth rate is the same. After one year, fifty two weeks, inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Tattletale would be overwhelmingly powerful, as seen in the previous chapter.

So, yes, Taylor and Lisa have grown far faster than a human from DBZ and for very specific reasons.

Also, the reason for giving characters two power levels at the end of a chapter is simple. For Lisa in the last chapter, it was what she was when she went into the chamber and her power level when she came out. For Sundancer, Genesis, and Scion, it is because their abilities make it shift. Sundancer isn't skilled in hand to hand, but she could kill Echidna with just one attack if she so chose. Genesis is stuck in a wheelchair, but her various forms can do nearly anything she can imagine, if given enough time. Scion is simple enough. His golden body is just that strong, one hundred fifty thousand. His real just can't be quantified.

Now, on with the chapter.

Chapter Ten: Training

Lisa held Taylor still, a few hours later. The taller girl had fallen asleep against her, and the villainess was feeling particularly clingy after getting the story of what had driven the girl to the brink.

Scion was a multi-dimensional, eldritch monster waiting to rip the powers out of every parahuman on the planet and wipe the earth from existence in all dimensions it was able to access. Taylor's insistence that it was God was somewhat worrying, but that would be taken care of the moment that they found a way to stop it. Preferably a solution that would simultaneously destroy the creature.

Too bad that the overwhelming power that she already had wouldn't be enough to kill Scion. At least, not his real body.

Taylor had easily admitted that she, Lisa, could stop his golden body with no effort whatsoever. It was the problem of fighting an opponent that was the size of a planet, with who knows what for abilities, that was the real problem.

Earlier that day, Lisa had planned on just beating Saiyan down, pointing her in the direction of a tinker that could create another Hyperbolic Chamber, then wait to see what happens. That game was no longer viable. Maybe when they had dealt with the current issue, she could go back to the plan of being youthful rivals with the other girl.

Right now, though, Taylor was sleeping the sleep of the truly exhausted. Her injuries were gone, thanks to Lisa's own hijacked techniques from DBZ, but her spirit was all but shattered.

"Taylor?" A voice sounded from a ways off. It was the voice of a man in his forties, filled with worry.

"She's in here!" the blonde called, knowing that even an explosion wouldn't wake the girl up right now.

The tall, skinny form of Danny Hebert rushed into the room, pausing only for a second before he rushed forward. In only a couple of seconds he had Taylor in his arms, holding her to him. Lisa gave up the girl without a fight, even if she really needed someone to hold right at that moment.

"What happened?" the man asked darkly after a few moments.

"I beat her up," the blonde said unashamedly, "Then she tried to use me to kill herself."

"What?" Danny's face was slowly twisting into a snarl of anger and hate that would not be good for his health, so the girl rushed to explain.

"When Taylor first brought me in, I figured out how to unlock my own Ki from watching her," the villainess said, "It was intoxicating, all that power, with more on the horizon if I just put in a little effort. You don't realize how huge this is, really, but we'll come back to that. I knew we'd hit a ceiling for how strong we could get if we didn't have someone to test ourselves against. By the time I was even halfway powerful enough to be stronger than most Brutes and faster than any Mover that didn't teleport your daughter was already ten times that. So, I commissioned Leet to build me a pocket dimension with accelerated time. One day in there is one year, and I spent every day training to get as strong as I could. Result? I'm the strongest thing to have ever walked the planet, currently.

"But not it gets complicated," the girl sighed and started explaining what happened with Scion and what happened to Taylor. How she had broken so badly.

"Right now, only two things are going to help her," Lisa said, "One, training until she is even stronger than me. Two, you."

Danny, still holding his daughter, though now he was sitting down on a couch with her, sat silently, waiting for more. Obviously the girl had a plan, now he just needed to hear what it was, before he agreed to it, or blew it off entirely.

"That is my time chamber," she pointed at the ugly door sitting on one side of the room, "You and your daughter are going to go in there and you are going to bond. You'll bond with her, she'll train, maybe you will too, and when she comes out, she'll be a year older, way stronger, and far better adjusted," Lisa stood then, "While you're doing that, I'm going to go about looking up ways to kill a multi-dimensional dick that wants to kill us all."

"How do you know this will work?" Danny asked, "What makes you so sure that she will get any better, just by training and spending time with me?"

"I consulted a precog. Payed her eighty thousand dollars to find the right combination of things necessary to get your daughter back on her A-game. This is it," she gestured to the door, "Are you in? Or are you going to watch your daughter kill herself slowly?"

When put like that, the man had only one choice. Well, only one _good_ choice.

Ten minutes later, Lisa was going through her finances, wondering how much more she could afford to waste on finding a way to kill Scion and still have a decent amount of resources left over to continue the business. Danny had taken Taylor into the chamber, promising retribution if the blonde was wrong, and the girl had actually believed him.

"Where have you been for the last day or so?" Grue asked as he came into their usual hideout to find her on her computer, "And what kind of steroids are you taking to get that kind of turnout?"

"I hired Uber and Leet to build a door that leads to a pocket dimension that accelerates time three hundred sixty five to one, used it yesterday to train non-stop for a year to be the second coming of Frieza, only to find out that I'm still kickin' around in the kiddie pool," she looked up briefly, "How would you kill an eldritch abomination that was living on several levels of existence simultaneously?"

"What?" the black boy asked, "Okay, start over. What the hell is going on?"

Yet again, Lisa explained.

"Honestly, I'm gonna get some cards printed up, hand them out," she shrugged, "It would make it easier on me."

"Yeah," he nodded a little slowly, "Okay, so what is the plan? How are you going to do it?"

From the way he said it, the teen was obviously hinting that he wanted no part of what was to come. He already had custody of Aisha, 'Coil' having come through with that, and with pulling the occasional job on the side, they were far better off than they had ever been before. He didn't want to jump, feet first, into a suicidal battle if he didn't have to.

"I dunno," Lisa shrugged again, "That's why I asked you. I mean, I have a general plan, but who knows how that will turn out."

"And what is that plan?"

"Get stronger and stronger, alongside Saiyan, until we just completely overpower Scion with little effort," she sighed leaning back on the couch, "But that could take months, and that with the time chamber. Saiyan really wasn't too far off, calling it a god, all told."

"Right, because the two of your aren't strong enough yet," the slow way he enunciated every word showed his outright disbelief. How Saiyan, whose accolades were not limited to the extermination of the Slaughterhouse Nine, could be considered weak was a mystery to him.

"Nope," the blonde nodded cheerfully, then shook her head, "Listen, I'm not fully in my right mind at the moment. I'm going to go let off some steam and get my thoughts together. I'll be back before tomorrow, hopefully with some idea on how to stop Scion from killing us all."

The blonde put her fingers to her forehead and teleported away.

-9001-

Two months ago, Taylor broke down into a sobbing mess, just because she got beaten by Tattletale. She was still angry over that overt display of unnecessary emotion. Taylor would never be a stone faced, unemotional robot like Alexandria, but crying in public, especially in front of someone who was supposed to be an enemy, was just bad business.

Finding out that the girl who had handed her her own ass so completely was actually willing to help her stop the end of the world was at least good. It even served to take off some of the sting of her semi-public breakdown.

Having a way to train up to a similar level, in just one day real time? More of the sting was soothed.

Having her dad there with her, understanding why she needed to do this, and more than that, participating in the training? Honestly, that was such a boost to her morale that what had started as seething anger directed at herself was little more than annoyance.

You never really knew how important it was to have a parent's approval until you got it.

With his support, she was able to get back on track for defeating the monster that was out there, waiting for them. Already she was way stronger than she had been.

"So," Danny began that subjective morning, "What will you have me doing today?" The poor man wasn't able to use Ki yet and Taylor had no way to know if flooding him with her own would unlock it, or make him explode, so she was starting from the ground up. So far she'd had him doing exercises to build strength and flexibility, only starting him on the forms halfway through the second month.

"Today's going to be about the same as the last two weeks," the girl said, going into a pose with her left foot and arm forward, her right hand pulled back to her waist, with her wrist facing the sky, "We'll go through the motions for now, then start speeding up as we go, then spar for a few rounds."

Danny took up a similar stance, with very few discrepancies. Together they moved through the individual stances. Taylor with the grace of a forty year practitioner and master of the art, Danny with the stiffness and jerky movements of a newbie.

After the first thirty minutes, they were moving at quite some rate, the loose training clothes they wore snapping with their momentum. Tempting as it was to just lose herself in the motion, the girl kept herself to a speed her father could keep up with.

"Right," she said after a full hour had passed, "Ten minute break, then we spar," she said with some pride. Truth be told, her father was a prodigy. It shouldn't be a surprise, really, that he could do something when he really put his mind to it. He'd been fighting for the Docks for years, and had never given up, slowly wearing the mayor down. This was something where he only had to deal with his own limitations. Limitations that he was quickly being taught were basically just mental.

After the break, they stepped into an unmarked area, although they had memorized the invisible lines they weren't allowed to cross.

"Today, I want you to lead the attack in each round," Taylor told her dad, "Stop," she interrupted him when he opened his mouth to object, "Stop thinking about how strong I am. Don't worry about that. It's unimportant right now. All that matters is that you have to hit me."

Danny took a breath and took up the standard stance again. He looked at Taylor and tried not to see his little girl, the last piece of his beloved wife he had. He tried not to see the girl that had wrapped her around his little finger when she was first born. He tried not to see his lips and Annette's hair on the whole separate person they had made together.

He inched forward, observing the way she shifted, her eyes narrowing at him. He switched his stance, making his right foot lead, and his opponent changed up her stance as well. He gulped, closed his eyes for a few moments, then opened his eyes again.

He moved forward quicker than he could ever have before the last two months of training, feinting a punch to her face, then lashing out with a whip kick towards her stomach.

The next thing he knew, the world turned to the left and he was being flipped over Taylor's shoulder.

"Ow," he groaned, pushing himself back to his feet.

"That was good," the girl told him with a genuine smile, "Let's go again, okay? And this time, don't start with your right foot forward. It would be a good way to throw a less experienced opponent off, but never assume that they aren't masters."

"Gotcha," the man nodded, getting back into position. He took the girl's advice, leading with his right foot. He repeated the breathing and focusing on his goal.

Danny streaked forward, faster this time, striking with a side-piercing kick then spinning it into a heel strike towards her face when she blocked that.

Taylor ducked, grabbing his leg and pushing him off balance. The man stumbled, but she stayed on guard. One of the things she learned about her father recently was that he was a boxer in college. He had lost most of it over the years, and he wasn't anywhere near top ranked, but he was devious.

Such as just now, had she gone in for the hit, his 'stumble' would have turned into a rabbit punch to the ribs in the blink of an eye. The moment he realized she wasn't falling for it, he pulled his stance in tight again.

The man wished he could just jump at the girl and kick her like in all the movies, but that was something she beat out of him quickly. He'd get to do the movie level, even the anime level, martial arts eventually. Two weeks of serious training was not the time for it.

Still, he used what he did know to a pretty nice effect, sliding smoothly into her guard and lashing out with a right cross, followed immediately by a knee to the gut. When she tried to backpedal, he grabbed her head and pulled her back to him. He immediately started pounding her with his knees.

He only got in two good blows before she broke his grasp and slammed a kick like a sledgehammer into his stomach, sending him sliding across the ground.

He looked up to see his little girl cradling her obviously broken nose, blood pouring out of it.

"Oh, god, Taylor!" he started panicking, "I'm so-"

"God damn, Dad!" the girl snapped her nose back into proper alignment with a sickening crack then healed it up with the use of the technique that Tattletale had unwittingly showed her, "You are fucking vicious!" Her grin was wide and proud.

He stopped his full on dad panic mode, and looked at the girl he had just assaulted. Taylor was no worse for the wear, all said and done. Actually, she looked absolutely proud that her father had just done his damnedest to beat her face in.

"I, uh," he rubbed his hands together awkwardly, "I had a friend named Jimmy. he told me that, in a fight outside the ring, the only rule is to win at any cost."

"Jimmy was right," the girl nodded, "You spit, you scratch, you fart in their faces if the opportunity presents itself and it will give you an opening. If you really want to go pro, I can change up your training, but right now, I'm teaching you to put 'em down and out."

The man nodded, "So, another?"

"Hell yeah, time to kick it up, I think. You are really blooming, what with the one on one, here," Taylor said with a grin. Danny nodded again, ready to do more and be better.

"Speaking of," the girl lost her smile, "Do you want to be a cape?"

"What?"

The girl's eyes were glowing red as she looked at him, one of the tells that she was using her sensing ability, "You have a Passenger. I think one of the troopers called it a Corona Pollentia. It's what gives us power," she frowned for a moment, thinking about what she knew about powers now, where they came from, "I can't promise that it will be something good, or even ground breaking, but I can promise that to get it, you will have to go through the absolute worst day of your life to get it."

"Yeah," the man said, "Not exactly selling me on it, kiddo."

Taylor shrugged, "I wish I could give you a guarantee of something awesome, but I can't. You could end up being able to turn into a purple hamster, or you might be able to fold space around you as you so please. It's a crapshoot," the teen told him, "and the cost is high. I just wanted to give you the option of activating it here."

The man hummed at that.

Honestly, the prospect was scary. If losing Annette and nearly losing Taylor weren't enough to make him Trigger, what would it take? Would it even be worth it? What if he ended up with something he'd really have to munchkin, like bug control, or something?

He looked at his daughter, who was using a power that anyone could use, if given enough time, greatly enhanced by her parahuman ability. If his had half the utility of understanding the motion of anything he saw, he would be strong.

Maybe even strong enough to protect his daughter one day.

His decision was made.

-9001-

The next day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the doors to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber slowly began to open.

Lisa was already there, suited up, waiting to see if Taylor had kept her own growth rate up. More than that, waiting to see if she was better mentally. Wouldn't do to have someone that was stronger than all the Endbringers combined, a thousand times over, with the stability of Jack Slash.

Steam hissed out of the doors, a gimmick that Leet had built in to make any exits from the chamber seem more dramatic.

It worked.

The first silhouette to come out of the steam was obviously Danny, even if he was several times more muscular. He was only wearing the business clothes he had had when he went into the chamber, but the way they were drawn taut over his muscles, combined with the calm confidence in his expression, made the man seem more dangerous than if he had come out of the chamber wearing black leather and an ammo belt.

Just behind him, and far changed, according to Lisa's senses, was Saiyan. Definitely not Taylor. The look on that woman's face was not that of an average, if tall, teenager. That was a warrior.

She was taller by no less than four inches and her curly, brunette hair cascaded around her like a waterfall.

Those were the physical changes. The metaphysical, her Ki and Chi, were off the freakin' charts.

"So," Lisa began, "How are you feeling?"

Taylor looked at her hands, gripping them tight then opening them to show bright red light that hummed with raw power, the girl grinned.

"Pretty awesome."

"Good, cause we've got some work to do," the blonde said, turning around and leading the two of them out of the building. It was time to start putting together a real plan to defeat an evil space whale.

-9001-

Power Levels!

Danny- 11/132

Lisa- 9,413,444

Taylor- 6826/11,251,662


	11. Chapter 11 Plans and Meetings

For those who asked about where I got my numbers for the static growth I gave you the other day, I got it from observation. And no, the human race doesn't have a level cap.

Think about it. When did the human members of the Z-fighters stop growing stronger?

Was it when they reached Frieza's level, over the course of four to five years? Was it when they were even stronger than that, to the point that they could stand toe to toe with Cell?

Or was it when they lost interest in getting strong enough to keep up with the Saiyans and quit training as hard?

Tien was able to blas Semi Perfect Cell into the ground with his Tribeam, and the creature wasn't able to do anything about it until he stopped. Sure, it didn't kill him and it nearly killed Tien to do it, but Cell was already several times what Frieza had been, at that point, and Tien, a human(with a third eye, admittedly), was able to incapacitate him for several minutes.

Human growth only stops when they stop training. Several times, Saiyans have plateaued until they had the ever loving crap beaten out of them again.

Chapter Eleven: Plans and Meetings

After exiting the building, Taylor and Danny immediately split away from Tattletale.

"I have to go check in with the Protectorate," the warrior said, "I've been out of contact for over twenty four hours. I'm probably going to be hit with Master/Stranger protocol, so yeah. Gonna be out of contact for a while," she turned a mild frown on Lisa, "You know, this changes nothing, right? Soon as we're done with this, I'm gonna take you in."

Lisa's grin was downright predatory, "You're going to _try_."

Instead of being annoyed by it, Taylor just grinned right back at her. The two gripped each other's hands, turning a simple handshake into a display of strength and dominance for a second. The ground cracked, wind kicked up, electricity in red and purple arched over their hands, small bits of rock and debris were being levitated into the air.

"Girls," Danny cut in, "Flirt with one another later. We have things to do at the moment."

Taylor blushed a fetching shade of red, while Tattletale just lifted an eyebrow at her response, then grinned like a fox.

"Yeah, let's move on. I would hope that the two of you wouldn't tell anyone in the protectorate about this? After all, no need for me to destroy them when they try to appropriate it for their own use."

Both of the Heberts nodded to her. Danny placed his hand on his daughter's shoulder then, and the girl teleported the two of them away.

"Right, now, time to find out how completely bullshit Tinkers are," Lisa mumbled to herself. She put her fingers to her forehead and was gone in the next half second.

-9001-

A few hours later, both father and daughter were indeed detained, in completely separate cells, undergoing a full blackout for forty eight hours.

At least, that was the usual protocol.

Only three hours in, Taylor was contacted by Alexandria, Legend, and Eidolon. Their faces were projected onto the wall to her left, even if her senses told her that they were upstairs. And her improved power told her even more than that, what with being able to see their passengers.

"Saiyan," Alexandria lead, as usual, "What happened yesterday? Why did you disappear?"

"Tattletale kicked my ass, six ways to sunday," she said with a shrug, "Lost my mind for a little bit in the middle of it. Tried to commit suicide. She found a way to become geometrically more powerful in only a very short time," she looked at each one of them in turn, "I used it myself. That's why I appear different. My dad used it too. Triggered during the course of it."

"So, it's dangerous, this technique?"

"No," Taylor shook her head, "Not in and of itself. I asked him if he wanted to trigger, he said yes, I simulated an environment where he was suffering mentally and physically, and he triggered."

"What power does he have?" Eidolon asked.

"Striker/Thinker," the girl said immediately, "He has the ability to see sixty seconds into the future of anyone he touches with his right hand and sixty hours into their past if he touches them with his left. He is never wrong about what he sees, and we assume that is the reason he can only see one minute into the future, but so far into the past."

"Hmm," the man in green intoned, rubbing his glowing chin with a hand, "Why did Tattletale allow you to use this training? What does she gain from it?"

"I told her about Scion. About the real Scion. The monster-god that wants to kill us all. Her power filled in the blanks," she shrugged again, "She felt that it was enough of a threat to team up, temporarily. At this point, I'm pretty sure she's running scenarios to help me kill the fucker."

"Right," Legend said, frowning now, "Is this line secure?" Alexandria nodded, "How did you find out about Scion?"

"My ability, of course," Taylor grinned, "I used my Chi sense on him, saw everything about him in this world, then followed the tail of energy he has to his real body in several other worlds. It, well, it did what I told Doctor Yamada. I think I triggered again, and then I understood exactly what he wanted, why he was really here."

"Yes," Alexandria said, "About that. We have known about him for years. We have been trying to find ways to defeat him, but nothing has come about so far. We haven't been able to kill the Endbringers. Not until _you_ came along, that is," she gave the girl a very pointed look, "What are the chances you could defeat him?"

"Well, that comes in two parts," she said, "His golden body? One hundred percent. Wouldn't even break a sweat. His real body? I dunno. It's not just about raw strength. He has a nearly endless pool of abilities to pull from, none of them Manton limited, and it makes his threat rating vary, drastically, from one moment to the next. I can bet that he would have unholy regeneration, on top of all that. And who knows if he has anything annoying, like Dynakinesis, or energy proof barriers. Right now, I wouldn't risk it.

"Now," she put her fingers to her forehead and she was gone before the foam sprayers in the ceiling could even aim at her. She reappeared in front of the Triumvirate, sitting in the air, one leg crossed over the other. "We need to talk about what I can see about _your_ powers."

The three had started, at first, and Legend had nearly blasted her with one of his bendy lasers, but they settled back down relatively quickly.

"What about them?" the other woman in the room asked.

"Why are they artificial, for one?" her eyes were glowing again, "I can see where they are based, right in your brains. They don't look anything like other Passengers."

"You can see them?" Eidolon was rather shocked, "You can even tell that they are different from others? What about Case Fifty Three's? Have you seen one of them, yet?"

"Haven't had the pleasure, so I couldn't tell ya, but you aren't even the only ones here to have artificial powers. Battery has 'em too. So, what's going on?" Taylor crossed her arms.

The three looked at each other and Eidolon shook his head. The three of them subtly prepared for a fight.

"We can't tell you," Legend told the girl, "It's not something we're comfortable with telling anyone. Let alone a girl that could be Mastered, yet can completely ignore protocol, like right now, if she so chooses."

"Eh, whatever," Saiyan let it drop, "Not like it really matters."

The Triumvirate almost fell over at that. Really? She wasn't even going to accuse them of shady dealing? Nothing?

"Next," she pointed at Eidolon, "Why are you making the Endbringers attack?"

"What."

"What?"

" _What?!_ "

Legend and Alexandria turned to Eidolon, who had nearly barked out the last 'what'. He looked livid.

"Yeah, you," she wiggled her finger at him, "made the Endbringers. I can see it now, with my ability. I can even copy it, kinda," she focused her energy, and three small balls of matter came into existence. One was floating around her, the other two were on her shoulders. After a few moments, they all grew bodies that were a fraction of a fraction of the size of the real Endbringers, but looked exactly like Leviathan, Behemoth, and the Simurgh. "Seriously, what the fuck, dude?"

"You are _making_ them attack?!" Legend turned an accusing glare on his compatriot.

"What? No! I-"

"No," Taylor interrupted him, frowning now, "He isn't. That's just freakin' weird. You're doing it subconsciously. It's like you need an enemy to fight, or something," she grimaced then, "And you're waking up more of them, without even meaning to… I could nullify that for you, if you want."

"Really?" Alexandria asked, keeping her eyes on the Fun Sized Endbringers. So far, the little monsters hadn't done anything aside from looking around the room, but it was disturbing seeing the little monsters.

"Yeah. Easy as pie. Just use a little Chi to fry that ability without even touching his other one," she put a hand to her chin while the mini Ziz started playing with her hair, "Honestly, I could probably do with some practice first. Got any capes you want to be normal people?"

"No!" Legend said vehemently, "We don't condone Human expe-"

"Kaiser, Ashbeast, Nilbog, and Heartbreaker," Alexandria said with a hint of challenge, "Can you do it from a distance?"

"I can do it from here."

"Can you do it without killing them?"

"World wouldn't be worse off if I couldn't, but yeah, the only change will be the absence of their abilities, I'm pretty sure," the girl ran a hand through her hair, "That's why I need the practice. The other option is that I just kill the Endbringers as they show up, letting lives and collateral damages rack up with each attack and each new monster your power creates with, or without, your consent," she was looking at Eidolon again.

For a few moments, silence.

"You will complete the protocol. Then you will see if you can't nullify powers without hurting the person that has them. Start with Nilbog. Not many would be sad if he were to die of a mysterious cause," Alexandria ordered.

Saiyan nodded, putting finger to her head, "Gotcha, see ya later." She teleported away, then, leaving behind the mini Endbringers.

The three abominations stared at the three heroes. Unlike the originals, Taylor had allowed hers to be able to emote. This allowed the triumvirate to see that the three little creatures obviously were nervous, maybe even afraid.

Legend reached out to touch one, Simurgh. The mini Ziz observed the finger with some trepidation before reaching out with her wing tip and pressing it against his finger.

In that moment, it was almost as if the world colorized for the two of them, hero and monster. Pinks, light yellows, bubbles of pure joy.

Seeing the obvious benign actions of Ziz, Alexandria and Eidolon turned to the other two.

Mini Behemoth and Mini Leviathan looked away from their sister having a moment with Legend at the remaining two heroes. Mini Behemoth roared(hissed) at Alexandria and zapped the end of the finger approaching him with about two thousand volts. The woman hardly felt it, but it was still annoying and she glared at the creature.

At the same time, Mini Leviathan began shooting a squirt gun worth of water at Eidolon.

"Hey!" the man yelled. He'd be damned if the two male creatures didn't start laughing.

Alexandria harrumph'd and turned away, "Let's get out of here."

"Right," Eidolon nodded, "You coming, Legend?"

"Huh," he looked over at his teammates and compatriots, "Oh, yeah, sure," her turned back to Mini Ziz with a smile, "See you later." The little abomination waved, floating back to hover between her brothers.

-9001-

In a secret lair( a garage), far, far away(Boston), the world's greatest Tinker worked on his next project to change the Earth for the betterment of all mankind(to make himself rich as all hell).

"Come on, baby," the man pleaded, rubbing his hands together as he watched the plant he had designed with his own genius(compliments of his Passenger), "Papa needs a new WIFI provider."

The green stem and bulb were no larger than a rose, but it moved this way and that, seeming to sniff at the air. Very deliberately, Blasto, for that's who it was, breathed outwards. The plant's bulb snapped in his direction, then opened, showing a vibrant shade of yellow.

In the center of the blooming flower, instead of the usual pollen producers and receptacles, was a Starburst candy, slightly misshapen, and lacking the wrapper. It was yellow, just like the petals of the mutant flower.

Blasto reached in and took the candy and cut it in two. On he set aside, the other he put under a microscope.

"Yes," he mumbled, "Good texture, the organic flavoring is holding up. The fructose is a little slow to saturate, but it's worth it for quality assurance, I suppose. Now, what about-YES!" He jumped to his feet, crowing for his success. He quickly reached over to the other half of the candy, popping it in his mouth.

Immediately he was able to enjoy the gush of flavor, lemon, just like he had hoped. He wasn't even seeing any halucinations this time.

"I'm gonna be rich!" He yelled into his lair.

"You're weird."

The full grown man screamed like a little girl, cringing away from the voice that he hadn't expected.

The well muscled girl in the cat suit looked completely unimpressed with this display.

"I am _so glad_ I'm not hiring you to be a fighter," she said, crossing her arms under her chest.

"Wh-what do you want?" he stuttered, pulling the plant that had produced the candy closer to himself, "If this is about those stupid 'Cease and Desist' letters the USDA keeps sending me, you can tell them I've stopped using halucinagenic plants for bases."

"Yeah, not here about that. I have a commision," Tattletale told him.

"Well, I really don't have the time," the man said, putting the plant down, but keeping it close, "As you can see, I've just had a breakthrough and I was planning to celebrate with family and friends-"

"I'm willing to fund your research," she grinned, "For ten years."

"But my parents are dead and I never really had friends, so what the hell? What can I do for you?" His smile was fake and his hand was covered in dirt as he held it out to her.

"I need you to make me a sensu beanstalk," she told him, shaking the hand regardless, "For the first ten years, the entire time I fund you, you can't release it to the public, though. After that, you can do whatever you want with it. No doubt if you release it, it will make you far richer than…" she looked around his lab, picking up clues and making logical jumps, "Than the creation of a healthy, tasty alternative to candy ever will."

"Uh-huh?" the man grunted, "And what is a sensu bean?"

"Here," she said, pulling some data packets out of her jacket, "This has exactly what I'm looking to have created. Can you do it?"

"Lessee, lessee," he mumbled, flipping through the pages as he moved to his throne. No parentheses this time. He really had a throne, made out of a tree he designed to grow that way when he first thought about being a villain.

"Instantaneous regeneration, energy infusion, tasty," he continued flipping through the pages, "I can do it. I could even do it here, but it will take time."

"You've got ten years," the girl shrugged, "Bonus if you can get it done in two weeks, though."

"What kind of bonus?" the man asked, looking up at her from the notes she had given him.

She smirked, "I'll think of something," her tone became downright sultry, "Just for you."

The man gulped and crossed his legs over one another, "O-okay. Two weeks it is."

"Good boy," she then teleported away, leaving him to his own devices.

"I am never washing this hand again," the man said wistfully, staring at the hand that he had used to greet the babe in purple that had just promised to give him money for ten years if he made her magic beans.

When she appeared in her own lair, Lisa glared down at the hand, "I am going to have to wash this hand three times a day for a week."

-9001-

There is a picture out there called the Friendbringer. It's a picture of Taylor surrounded by chibi Endbringers. It did nothing to inspire anything in this chapter. Really. Totally. You should go check it out. It frickin adorable.

And seeing as the picture is inspired by the fanfic, 'With Friends Like These', I suppose I should say that, no, they will not actually be making another appearance in this fic. Just consider it an homage to something way to funny to pass up giving some proper attention.

Power Levels!

Mini Ziz- 200

Mini Leviathan- 225

Mini Behemoth- 300

Lisa- 9,413,444

Taylor- 11,251,662


	12. Chapter 12 Abilities

A chapter in which things happen, stuff explodes, and people do specific things for specific purposes.

Chapter Twelve: Abilities

Kaiser, as he would tell you himself, was not a man with whom to fuck. As a leader among leaders, paragon of his race, and metal generator, there was very little he couldn't achieve. He had inherited the Empire from his dad, Allfather, and took it to new heights in under a decade.

He would never be defeated by the Protectorate because of his usefulness in an Endbringer fight. The truce made him far too valuable. Not just for his power, but for the pull he had with such a large number of parahumans. His backing from the Gesselschaft made him even _more_ valuable and untouchable. If he ever was caught, they would make sure he got off rather quickly.

Then things changed.

Saiyan took out Lung in a single evening, with not a scratch to show for it. Whatever one might say about that lesser mongoloid, he was not the be trifled with. The asian man by himself was enough to keep both the other villains and the heroes at bay. That someone, a young girl at that, was enough to take him out was originally taken as a fluke.

Her subsequent capture of the Undersiders, and the rest of the ABB, was just enough for people to think that she was strong enough to get a lucky hit in on the Dragon of Kyushu before he had started powering up.

Then Saiyan killed Leviathan.

The Endbringers were the greatest thing to ever happen to the criminal element. It created an opening for leniency from the heroes. Drug dealing, assaults, thievery, nearly everything, short of rape and murder, became little more than a misdemeanor. Sure, they were jailed if they were caught at it, but putting nearly any parahuman in a regular jail was the equivalent of putting a revolving door on their cell. It just didn't work.

And this was all because they needed every hand they could get against the Endbringers. Every able body. Every parahuman they could get to sign up. That meant creating an actual treaty, a completely legal document, that made it so that they couldn't arrest the villains, during or just after an Endbringer fight, as long as said villain didn't go about fighting unnecessarily with the heroes or whoever their other enemies were.

Saiyan ended all that by proving that she, by herself, was enough to kill one.

The treaty was burned. Seven hundred villains were apprehended in the first month. There was no holding back, sending them to regular jail. Eighty percent of all those arrested were sent directly to the Birdcage. The remaining twenty were forcibly recruited. They were given the ultimatum of go to prison or join the winning side.

Kaiser was canny enough to see the change coming for what it was. It was going to take a higher level of Villain to stay on the outside, now. People powerful enough to fight off the heroes, and smart enough to know _when_ to fight them. He was that kind of villain, and he had an iron fisted control over the capes under his banner.

It was too bad, though, about Purity. She had been taken in early. He was almost proud of her, though, when she gave _them_ an ultimatum. Either she kept custody of her daughter, or she killed _everyone_. Saiyan had, surprisingly enough, sided with the woman on this. That gave the PRT little choice but to agree. Two weeks later, Purity became Lightfall, and her band of comrades ended up joining with her.

Unfortunately, in Kaiser's opinion, the Archer's Bridge Merchants also saw the tides of change and had hidden away.

What had once been a city where the villains were able to freely walk the streets and only have to _occasionally_ fear being arrested had become a shining example of what happened when you fought the law. The law won.

Battles for territory were held in secret, in short bursts. The Empire Eighty Eights were winning, but only barely, what with the constraints. At any given time, it would take less than a full minute for the heroes to deploy. Then there was the threat of Saiyan showing up. Kaiser was loathe to admit it, but he feared that girl more than anything else. He'd seen the video of how Bakuda had been taken in.

Crippled and screaming.

He tightened the leash on his own when he saw that, especially Hookwolf's branch of the business. They, like the ex-wrestler, were a rather rowdy bunch. It took a few shows of power, men being made example of, to get them to fall in line.

And now all of it, the hiding, the running, the limiting, was for nothing.

The Merchants had finally decided that they were tired of hiding in the crags and losing ground to the Empire. They had appeared en masse, literally crawling out of the sewers, and calling out their rivals.

Squealer had created a new vehicular atrocity out of a garbage truck that had more guns and canons than a battleship. Skidmark had used his power to make it even more lethal by ingenious use of his ability to both improve the speed by placing momentum strips on the tires, and the velocity of the ammo by placing even more inside the barrels. Mush was hanging out in the back, using his unique ability to provide an equally unique defense.

If it had been any other time, Kaiser might have pulled back and let the idiots get taken in by the Protectorate and taken the entire underground for himself. But this had not been a good week for him.

After Purity had become Lightfall, Theo had triggered. What he had thought of as a failure, an emotionless wastrel whose only purpose was staying out of the way, became a matter manipulator that made Kaiser's powers rather unimpressive. Theo interacted with anything he touched, non-organic, and could even travel through it. He could take the metal blades that Kaiser would create and turn them into metal bunnies, had he the mind for it.

Theo then joined the Wards, under the condition that he wasn't stationed in Brockton Bay. He wanted nothing to do with the Empire. It was only the unwritten rules, at this point, that kept the PRT from coming and getting him in his office.

Rather pissed, all told, the man ordered his troops to destroy the MErchants, and any hero that showed up to stop them. It was time to show the world that the Empire Eighty Eight was still alive and well. Still the strong.

It was going well.

Fenja and Menja were keeping Lightfall, Night, Fog, and Dragon at bay. Rune was being a nuisance to Armsmaster. Victor was taking on the Wards. All of them. He was using martial arts on a level that was nearly fictional to make fools out of the teens. His first run had put Vista down. The second took out Clockblocker. Now he was just toying with them. Hookwolf was running through the unpowered Merchants like so much toilet paper.

Kaiser himself was aiming for the vehicle that Squealer had made. He'd already closed the area off with his metal projections, completely blocking roads and alleys. He'd even cut off the escape routes by blocking the sewer entrances.

"We are the Empire Eighty Eight!" the man roared, "We are the truest incarnation of a superior race! The mix breeds, the mongrels, the race traitors, none of them will stand against the storm of our power! This stalemate ends today!" He gestured upwards with one hand, his fingers clawed inward and a spike pierced the garbage tank, going completely through it and lifting it ten feet off the ground, "First the Merchants!" he yelled, "Then the Protectorate! No one will ever doubt our power again!"

The entirety of the gang present let loose a roar of approval, fighting ever more fiercely.

"Yeah," said a bored voice from above them, "Not gonna happen."

All eyes turned skyward then, to see Saiyan floating there. She was obviously taller than the last time they had seen her, and the reddish glow that surrounded her whenever she used her power was somehow heavier than anyone watching could fully understand.

She was the only one of the local hero teams that hadn't showed up, so far, and no one could guess why she hadn't been there in the first place.

"Now," the girl said, lowering herself slowly until she was actually standing on the end of the spike that had punctured the garbage tank, "Let's be civil about this. None of you can win. Give up now and you'll be sent to the Birdcage, none the worse for wear. Just hand yourselves over."

Fired up and in full bloodlust, Hookwolf didn't take the invitation to give in. He let loose a roar that was enhanced by his metal body, and he charged the girl, giving an admirable leap into the air and slashing his claws through the air. The blades he used for his claws were so sharp that they whistled as the moved.

"Bad dog," the girl said, spinning into a roundhouse kick that sent the parahuman back the way he came at six times the force. He hit the ground with enough force for the area to tremble. It was only his Brute rating that saved Hookwolf from being road pizza.

Fenja and Menja moved in next. Their powers were exactly the same, improving their size and making them stronger and tougher the bigger they got, geometrically. At their max height, even an Enbringer couldn't kill them.

Kaiser had given them weapons sized for their max when the battle began, and they swung them in unison at the girl, from both sides.

They were stopped by one powerful, but dainty, hand each. The thunderclap of their weapons being stopped was deafening, but Saiyan wasn't even straining under their power.

The leader of the Empire Eighty Eights watched, his jaw hanging, as Saiyan lifted the twins into the air by their weapon and slammed them into each other, repeatedly, until they lost consciousness.

"Bad parahumans!" the girl scolded, wagging her finger at them, "I'm taking away your toys until you've proven you can use them properly and you're all going into time out." There was a crimson rain, none of the villains able to dodge it. They all screamed in fear, even some of the heroes were moving to try and stop them from being hit, but the beams moved around them.

However, instead of burning through the villains, killing them all, it didn't appear to do anything at all. It didn't even sting, in all honesty.

No one was sure, exactly, what had happened. At least, not until Kaiser screamed.

"What did you do?!" He thrust his hands at her, making odd motions with his limbs and grunting. Nothing was happening though.

It took a few of them a minute, but they eventually realized what had happened. The metal user was _trying and failing_ to make blades and spikes and walls. His power was _gone._

Fenja and Menja were shrinking quickly back to a normal human size. Rune wasn't able to lift anything with her mind. Victor was no longer a martial arts master. Hookwolf's metal was melting away to nothingness, leaving behind the roided up gangster, still knocked out from Saiyan's kick. Mush was surrounded by garbage and grime that was now doing nothing for him except making him reek. Squealer was staring at the garbage tank with a kind of confused annoyance, almost drooling as she tried to remember how she built it in the first place. Skidmark was cursing up a storm that would turn the air green.

'Huh, guess that wasn't part of his power,' Kaiser thought, still feeling shock from no longer being able to use his own ability.

"I told you," Saiyan said, answering his earlier question, "I've taken away your toys," she lifted into the air then, saluting the other heroes, "I'll see you all at the base."

It was a simple matter then, for the Protectorate and the PRT to take in the villains. They even muzzled Skidmark, muffling his tirade of profanity.

-9001-

In another part of the world, Scion, the golden man, the greatest and first hero, suddenly looked west, towards Brockton Bay, a frown adorning his face. Almost casually, he started drifting in that direction, ignoring everything else in his path.

He knew this had something to do with that weird little ape that had nearly killed Behemoth. He could feel that she was approaching a level that would be a threat to him. One of his limitless pool of abilities, a far upgraded version of the Path to Victory, was telling him that, if he didn't intervene soon, she would kill him.

That was odd. He didn't think that the ability she'd been given would have been enough to be a threat to him at all. He'd seen what it was, what it was capable of evolving into. It was rather weak, all told. Just the understanding and copying of motion. Nothing special, really. Even it's next evolution, the understanding of, and ability to copy a fraction of, other powers shouldn't have made her a threat.

And yet, she was swimming in an energy as vast as the galaxy her home was in. It was… baffling.

And it was time to nip this threat in the bud.

He would get there in the next couple of days. That should be plenty of time to get there before she had the ability to stop him.

He continued to casually drift in her direction, his expression focused.

-9001-

Sitting before the Triumvirate yet again, Saiyan was sitting there with her legs propped up on the table and her arms behind her head.

"So," Alexandria began, "What happened with Nilbog?"

"Had to destroy Ellisburg," she said, "I was able to take away his power, but that sent his monsters all aflutter. They started breaching the quarantine, so I acted."

"Yes," the woman said, crossing her arms, "We can actually see the crater of that choice from space."

"This does not bode well for your ability to remove my subconscious control of the Endbringers," Eidolon said, "Who knows what the Simurgh might do, once no longer leashed, even if it is to so destructive a goal."

Saiyan frowned at the man, "Are you trying to back out of this?"

"What? No, I-"

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear, before," she gestured over to the three Mini-bringers that were hopping all over Legend like a band of puppies, "Those three? They were just the tip of the iceburg. There are _seventeen more_ , just waiting to come out and wreak havoc, all around the world. If we don't shut down your power, countless lives will be lost. Who knows what might be lurking out there. One of the monsters might have an ability that uses my power to make themselves even stronger, in a way that even the Behemoth would be jealous of. I really don't want to take that chance," she held up a glowing finger, then, "And if Ziz goes schizo, I'll be able to take her out before she can even enter the atmosphere. I'm not as weak as I was when I killed Leviathan. She wont last have a second against even my _Petit Ruby Balle_."

The man stood back, silent. He had arguments he wanted to use, but none of them were good enough, and he knew it.

"What happened with the Empire and the Merchants?" Alexandria asked next.

"Simple," Taylor shrugged, reclining again, "I took their powers away. They were using them to commit crimes. I figured it was like taking a gangster's gun. It's just the smart thing to do. Hell, now you can even put them in a regular prison," she grinned, "And hey, think of it as more proof that I can get rid of that pesky power that's making the monsters, and you wont even feel a thing."

Eidolon grunted. Alexandria looked at the man. He glared back. She lifted an eyebrow behind her mask. He narrowed his eyes further. She nodded her head towards Saiyan. He clenched his fists for a few seconds, then stepped forward.

"Fine," he growled, "Do it. But leave my other ability intact."

Taylor lazily twitched her foot, sending a red beam at the hero. He shuddered, not feeling anything, really, but imagining the feeling of something essential being burned away.

At the same time, floating near the moon, Ziz twitched, then grinned. At the same time that some specific systems on Earth started klaxons that alerted people to abnormal behavior in the Endbringers, Ziz zoomed off into space with no intention of ever looking back. By the time that any of the heroes would be able to catch up with her, she'd have already opened dimensional rips several times, still heading deeper into space. It felt good to be free.

"Is it done?" the only full grown woman in the room asked.

"Yup. The Endbringers will never darken another doorstep," Saiyan looked at her watch, "So, I've got another meeting with a…" she paused, turning her head to one side, "With a friend. I'll be back some time tomorrow."

"Yes, yes," Alexandria nodded, "Go ahead. We'll go see some sources about the Simurgh, to see if she's acting erratically."

"Bye then," and she teleported away.

Eidolon fell into a seat seconds later, looking up at Alexandria, the glow around his face fading, "What am I going to do now? My powers are fading. Without another challenge to face, eventually…" he didn't have to finish. Alexandria knew what he meant. The man had been stuck in a wheelchair before he'd been given his powers by Cauldron. If they faded, he would eventually find himself right back in the wheelchair.

It was a horrible thought.

"We will figure something out," Legend said, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder.

The Mini-bringers, whom had all decided to go home with the openly gay superhero, glared at Eidolon, but made no move to bother him otherwise.

"God damn, those things are creepy," Eidolon muttered.

"Really?" LEgend asked, "I think they're kind of cute." He gently pat the Mini Behemoth on the head, getting a horrifying purr from the small monstrocity.

-9001-

Tattletale was waiting for Saiyan, tapping her foot impatiently, when the hero finally arrived.

"About time," the girl growled, "Do you realize how long I've been waiting for you?"

"A few seconds," the taller teen guessed.

"Well, yeah, but with how fast we are, it was an eternity," she whined, "I mean, the speed of light is for school zones, they don't have a measurement for how fast we are. A few seconds can _literally_ be an eternity for us."

"So?" Saiyan shrugged, "Stop thinking faster than light and it's not a problem. Are we doing this or not?"

"Right, right," Lisa nodded, "Oh, a-training we shall go." She started the process for opening the door to the Time Chamber, grinning to herself. "So, Taylor," she almost purred, "ready to get all hot and sweaty?"

The tall girl blushed, "Shut up!"

"What? I just meant that we're going to work hard, really break a sweat," her grin couldn't have gotten wider if she tried, "Why? What did you _think_ I meant?" She made a pose that was supposed to imply that she was thinking deeply. What it really did was give Taylor a good eyeful of the blonde's cleavage.

"I'm going to hurt you," Taylor growled.

"Bring it!" Lisa laughed, dashing into the pocket dimension.

Taylor launched after her, a glare maring her eyebrows, but a small grin stretching across her face.

-9001-

Power Levels!

Kaiser- 210/10

Fenja/Menja- 300/8

Hookwolf- 230/13

Victor- 150/11

Rune- 220/8

Purity/Lightfall- 350

Mush- 50

Squealer- 9

Skidmark- 80

Scion- 150,000

Lisa- 10,825,461

Taylor- 12,939,411


	13. Chapter 13 Developments

Chapter Thirteen: Developments

Taylor was lying on a mattress, looking up at the ceiling of her room in a parallel dimension, contemplating the complexity of emotion versus the sincere simplicity of logic. One couldn't tell by looking out the window, but it was night in this world with highly accelerated time. It was the perfect time for such introspective analysis.

Logic was very simple. In a logical world there was only one right answer to every problem. A door is closed and you need to go through it? Open it. Your car is dirty? Clean it. A man punches the strongest of you in the face, knocking him clean out with a single blow? Do not fight him.

Simplicity incarnate.

Emotion, however turned everything on its side, shook it up, pissed on it, and tried to make logic look like the bad guy. Need to go through a closed door? Why? What's behind the door? Is it a bathroom? Is it your lover? What if it's an enemy ambush? Maybe the door itself is evil. Your car is dirty? Why should you clean it? What if you like it dirty? Maybe it's a symbol of what you do for a hobby, a badge of honor, really.

A villainess miscreant somehow becomes so much more powerful than you that the previous rating system would explode if they knew the truest depths of what she could do, beats your ass, see's you break down like a whiny brat with angst issues, hugs you and says it will all be okay?

Logic says that, now that they were on a similar level, the villainess should briefly be used in her attempt to kill off Scion. Immediately afterwards, she should be apprehended and sent to a prison that could somehow contain her.

Emotion muddied the waters with questions. If Tattletale was so powerful already, why did she even allow Saiyan to catch up, let alone surpass her again? She could have just used the chamber by herself and gotten stronger still. Could have kept using it until she was just too much for any single, multi-dimensional space whale to even dream of facing, no matter his stupidly impressive pool of abilities. More than that, why did Tattletale, Lisa, try and comfort Taylor at all? There was no real need for it. She could have just taken the information and gone off to fight against said space whale on her own. She had no reason to try and get Taylor right in the head again. So why?

Was it because she wasn't really evil? Wasn't even all that bitchy, to be honest? Could it be because, deep down, Lisa wanted to be a good guy?

And then the even more complicated emotions got to put their two cents in. What if Lisa liked Taylor? What if she actually thought that the skinny, if muscular, girl was attractive? Did _Taylor_ find _Lisa_ attractive?

Taylor stood up then, going into the bathroom, looking into the mirror with a deep sigh. When she observed her image, she could still see all of her flaws.

She was far more defined now, but she really was still skinny. She couldn't see her own ribs past her eight pack, but she could still be described as needing to run around in a shower to get wet. Her legs were rippling with tightly packed, extremely powerful tendons. Sure, she may have burned them smooth with her Ki, but they were hardly feminine. Her chest… well, she was never going to be gifted up top. Not if genetics were going to have their way. Sure, she had finally grown from her barely A-cup bust to something closing in on a medium B, but compared to other girls, even Lisa, that was hardly noticeable. No matter how much she worked out, her mouth would always be too wide, with lips just this side of too thick. Her eyes were a dull brown. She was too tall and still growing.

She had said it many times, but the only thing she really felt was feminine, beautiful, was her hair. During her first time in the chamber, she had found a book that Lisa had written in her boredom all about about how to use Ki and Chi to make one's hair stronger, shinier, fuller. She abused the hell out of those otherwise useless techniques.

Compared to Taylor, Lisa was a goddess. Her muscles were less defined, leaving her legs and arms far more womanly in appearance. Her bust had finally stopped growing when she hit a mid sized D-cup. Her blonde hair was bright and straight, though she usually had it in a ponytail or bun. She was still short, small in a way that men found attractive. Her freckles added a Girl Next Door feel to her image as well.

The only thing that would offset her appearance was the constant vulpine grin. It was just so infuriating, and was now backed up by power the likes of which the _Endbringers_ could only dream of. Her smug, know it all, condescension was the only, major turn off about the woman.

And Taylor would definitely consider the blonde a woman.

For one, age wise, Lisa was now nineteen. Sure, outside of the time chamber, all the documents said she was only seventeen, but that didn't really matter, when she spent a couple days in accelerated time.

For two, she was, surprisingly enough, willing to put aside her own desires, for a time, to pursue something that would benefit everyone. No selfish kid would do that.

That just added to her attraction, in Taylor's eyes. It wasn't often, she'd say, that you met someone who was willing to set aside their own agenda to do the right thing.

The teen sighed, and moved back into her room, and froze.

Laying on her bed, naked as the day she was born, was Lisa. She wasn't even using a sheet to cover herself. She was grinning, as usual, but not the usual foxy one that got on her nerves. This one was far more sultry and, somehow, intimidating. She was trailing one long, elegant finger up her own leg to her waist and back down.

Taylor's pupils dilated and her pulse quickened, goosebumps going up and down her body.

Then Lisa spoke, her tone becoming honey tinged, auditory sex personified.

"So, are we gonna fuck, or what?"

-9001-

At six months in, Saiyan and Tattletale noticed something disturbing.

Their growth rate had slowed down. A lot. They weren't even sure when it had started.

It couldn't be because of age. They were certainly not past their prime. They were only nineteen and eighteen, respectively.

And it wasn't because of trailing physical growth, either. Taylor's last, unpowered, best was five hundred on the bench press. Lisa's was a less impressive, but still astounding, three hundred ten.

In the bath that night, while they simply cuddled in the warm soapy waters, Lisa looked up at the six and half foot amazon.

"Maybe it's this place," she gestured with one soapy arm to the window, and the white expanse beyond it, "Chi is the energy of the Universe, you said that yourself. Well, this universe is extremely limited. You and I are the only living things here, unlike there. Maybe we can only grow so strong under our own power. Literally."

"I suppose," Taylor shrugged, going back to scrubbing her fingers tenderly through the blonde lockes of the smaller woman.

"I mean, if you think about it," the other woman went on, closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling of being cleansed, "our Ki is what allows us interact with Chi. Chi let's us interact with the world. The world is vast. This place is small."

The brunette just sighed, as she was wont to do, and pulled the other woman to herself, shamelessly groping her in the process, "Stop. I know what you're doing. The more you try to find a good reason for this, the more I'm going to worry about it. Remember," she smiled wearily down at her lover, tapping the side of her head, "I can do that, too."

"Thinker powers are bullshit," Lisa complained.

"Yup."

-9001-

Scion stopped.

It had only been a few minutes since he started towards the city that had seen the complete destruction of a number of his shards.

Since a little over half a solar rotation, he had been aware of two powers growing there. Energy pools that were becoming vast beyond even his comprehension. When he met one of them, a score of cycles ago, she was barely more than a mouse that had gained an awareness.

He was unable to really conceive of how she had gained such power from her shard, but there she was. Worse was the fact that it was something he could not use himself.

He and his partner had tried, once, long ago. They had actually been to a dimension in which the creatures, the universe over, could use it. They had attempted to take it for themselves, to infect the inhabitants of one of their worlds with their shards.

They failed. The shards they had used were lost to them for eternity. The Shard of Growth, the Shard of Evolution, the Shard of Destruction. All of them were long gone from their reach, never to again be theirs. They could feel them, certainly, they were still in operation, being passed around the descendants of those they had been given to, but the simple, singular dimensional peons already had such raw strength that one of them felt the entities interfering and nearly killed Scion in the attempt to drive them off.

It was when he and Eden were young, before they had reached their first million years. He was certain that, should the two of them try again, they would be able to survive. If they hadn't grown at all, in the intervening billions of years.

In a brief moment of curiosity, Eden had looked at that dimension again, to assess their ability to go back and finally retrieve those shards. All she had seen had been a pair of yellow eyes. It had been so shocking that Eden crashed into several different Earths simultaneously, killing her.

Scion frowned then, remembering that. She had shared the horrifying vision with him. The eyes, their owner that is, actually spoke. It was the Shard of Understanding that let him Translate the message, and it confused him further.

"Whis!" it said, not truly speaking to Eden, or Scion, but speaking of them instead, "There is a little fish spying on my dimension. Should I kill it? Do you think it would be tasty in stew?"

Whatever the reply was, the two entities would never know. Eden had died simply from the shock of being so blocked. Well, the collisions that had happened because of the shock, but that was more of a mouthful. Scion himself felt something that he had only felt three times in his eons, Fear.

Those eyes, that voice, it was exuding that natural power so vast that it would be no surprise if that was where the power in that entire universe, aside from the Shards they had mistakenly parted with, had come from.

If two of these empowered apes were attempting to reach that level, it was best he nip it in the bud, now. He did not want to die. It could be billions of years before he found another entity like his Eden. Dying now would see to it that he never found it at all.

Unacceptable.

Remembering what had ultimately killed his partner had made Scion stop cold. The programs that tracked him alerted capes all over the world of his odd behavior. Alarms started blaring when he started blazing with light. People started scrambling when he moved so fast that it left a trail of fire in the skies.

There was no time to be leisurely, he could not imagine why he had ever thought that. He must have been too deep in his mourning to realize the threat as it grew. He turned on all of his combat abilities, clenching his fists, a frown marring his perfect, golden face.

"Let the Harvest begin."

Those were the words that heralded his explosive arrival in Brockton Bar.

-9001-

Taylor and Lisa were standing before the door to the Time Chamber, waiting for the minutes to tick down. The brunette was tapping her foot impatiently, ready to get out into the world, hoping that everything she _knew_ about their abilities wasn't true. Hoping that their previous growth would start again, as soon as they were out in the universe.

"Calm down," Lisa said, clasping her hand, "You're just going to have a fit if you don't stop worrying, and that won't be good for anyone."

Taylor took a deep breath, held it, and let it out with a hiss, "I know. Trust you me, I know. But I can't help it. We've barely gotten any better since the beginning, it seems. My powers can't figure it out. It can't tell me why we've slowed down. If we're wrong about it being this place, we are so incredibly boned that it isn't even funny."

"Yup."

"Yup?" Taylor turned to the blonde with a frown on her face, "I just said that we, and everything we know and love, will die if we can't get any stronger, and all you can say is 'Yup'?!"

"Yup."

Taylor growled picking the other woman up by the front of her shirt, pulling her close so they could be eye to eye, despite more than half a foot of height difference. Her glare was further intensified by her glowing eyes and her featureless black mask.

When she growled it was low and animalistic, primal, tiger-like.

"You are just begging to punished," her growl infected her words, causing them to rumble ominously.

Lisa just grinned, visibly shuddering, "Oh, I know. I can hardly wait for it," she looked over her girlfriend's shoulder, "Door's ready to open, by the way."

"You sneaky little-!" she lifted the edge of her mask, pressed her lips into the blonde's, then dropped her and whirled around to leave and go see if they were right.

Her first step outside of the accelerated time dimension stopped her cold.

Fire.

Everywhere.

Fire and ash and _death_. She could see countless capes lying about, whole and in pieces.

That shouldn't be possible, since the door to the chamber was inside one of Tattletale's bases. But it was, because the door had opened into a mound of shattered concrete and rubble. The sky was black with smoke, and everything was alight with the oranges and yellows of multiple flames. Explosions kept happening in the background, streaks of light zipping about in the smokey air.

That wasn't what had Saiyan's full attention, though.

When Tattletale came out behind her, only seconds later, she too was witness to what would be the event that would be labeled 'The Birth of Artemis'.

In the air, right above them, was Scion. His white uniform was as pristine as ever, but not for lack of blood that had been spilt in the last eleven hours and fifty eight minutes. Even as they watched, blood was falling down his front from his current victim. It didn't stain, being completely repelled by whatever power the monster was using.

That was horrifying enough for anyone.

It was more so when Taylor and Lisa realized who was being held aloft like that.

Danny Hebert.

Scion closed his fist on the man's head, crushing his skull and destroying his brain.

"Dad?" Taylor whimpered, then fell to her knees, bellowing to the heavens, " _ **DADDY!**_ "

The world was blinded.

-9001-

Power Levels!

Scion- 380,000/?

Danny- 138

Lisa- 214,467,902

Taylor 228,977,145/?

Please Enjoy.


	14. Chapter 14 Scion, Part Two

So, I'm going to be honest. This story just about died. Now it is alive and well.

Chapter Fourteen: Scion, Part Two

When Scion had arrived in Brockton Bay, most everyone knew there could be only two reasons for it. A, an Endbringer was nearby, about to attack, and it was going to be one of those rare times he showed up before hand and simply stopped the attack before it could really get underway.

B, he was there for Saiyan.

When he started blowing up buildings, and literally pulling capes apart with his bare hands, they decided it was probably the latter.

In the first hour, several thousand capes showed up to try to stop him, hero and villain alike. He mowed through them like a lawnmower running over a particularly rough patch of grass. When they started busting out the capes from the Birdcage, things got more interesting.

It took him nearly eight hours of fighting to get into the city proper. These little apes were proving rather tenacious. They fought him with everything they could. Face to face, from behind, guerilla tactics, anything and everything to try and take him out. He'd already lost several moons worth of mass. It was impressive, if he was honest.

And he still hadn't even killed the majority of them. They were putting up a fight as if their very lives, and the lives of everyone they knew, were on the line. They were, actually. Still, the level of struggle he was having to face here was starting to remind him of that one other loss, and he began to get annoyed.

Then the tide shifted. Whereas he had been completely dominating the battlefield, even if he was killing only a few of the shard holders, it had become a struggle to gain any ground. The little apes were moving in a coordination that bordered on precognisance.

He'd be about to strike at some of the Blasters, and the Brutes he couldn't kill with that level of attack would get in the way. He'd start to open a hole into the black void of space to suck up those annoying Brutes and Shakers would clog it. He'd turn to a random target, going after Movers, and they just hid behind the Brutes. It was becoming truly frustrating.

Finding it to be a worthy moment to use it, he used his Full Path to Victory. to find out what he needed to do to end this annoyance.

He looked in the direction of the city outskirts. His ability told him he only needed to kill one ape. A little creature named Danny Hebert. If he did that, this entire battle would swing back to his side.

All he had to do was force himself through the lines of defense that would allow him to kill the insignificant gnat.

It didn't take long, now that he had a real target. he refused to be distracted.

Finally, twenty three hours and fifty seven minutes after his arrival, he had the precog in his hands, holding him in the burning remains of a brick building. He lifted the two of them into the air, wanting to savor this moment. Scion held the man by his skull, applying just enough pressure to be painful without killing him. Yet.

Then the little ape spoke.

"You're about to make the biggest mistake you can imagine," then he laughed, "Kick his ass, Taylor."

Scion frowned, then crushed the man's skull in his hand, his body dropping, not even the bits of liquified brain sticking to his golden skin.

" _ **DADDY!**_ "

 **POWER!**

It crashed into him like an unholy wave of force. It tripled the damage that had been done to him over the last twenty four hours, in a split second. If he didn't have such prodigious regeneration, even his real body would be feeling the drain from that.

He looked at the source of the wave of force.

Well, he tried to. The light was too bright for even his eyes to penetrate.

Finally, after a few moments, the light began to recede.

His first glimpse of what had caused that light was an orange, red, and black blur. Then his proxy's head was looking up at his proxy's body as the world spun wildly.

-9001-

Unlike Scion, Tattletale had a front row seat to the spectacle of Saiyan exploding into energy and light.

That wasn't an exaggeration or a euphemism. Taylor Hebert, Saiyan, ceased to exist for a moment, her entire body turning into pure, grief filled energy.

Seeing as she knew exactly how powerful the girl had become since the beginning of their time in the chamber, she prepared herself for the end of this planet and the surrounding _galaxies_.

That didn't happen, though.

Instead she heard a familiar, tiger like growl. She blinked her eyes open, looking at the place where her girlfriend used to be, and saw someone standing there. Some _thing_.

It was standing at seven foot six, was covered in tightly packed muscle and wearing a torn version of Taylor's uniform. The only part that was completely undamaged was the butterfly sigil on the back. The humanoid's skin was reddish, tinted by the heavy chi that was surrounding her, except for her arms and legs which had turned orange with black stripes. Her fingers were each now tipped with an ultrasharp claw and so were her toes. Her hair was a waterfall of red glowing strands that seemed to fuse and separate with the shifting of the wind, almost like living flame.

Finally, just above her godly toned buttocks, was a long, tiger's tail, with spikes coming out of the very end, like a stegosaurus.

"The fu-"

There was a deafening woosh of air when the being **moved**. The next thing that Tattleltale could make out was the head of Scion moving separately from his body.

She looked at the monster that her girlfriend had become, and yes, her power told her that that was indeed Taylor, Lisa could only gulp in fear and some arousal.

For Saiyan, she found herself surprisingly focused.

What should have been a berzerk, unthinking rage, was instead cold, calculated, controlled. She knew what she was doing, was able to plan each and every motion she made. She was even able to still use her power, the full extent of it, in this new form she found herself in.

After beheading the monster that had just killed her father, she looked down at her claws. She flexed the muscles in her fingers, causing them to retract, then extend. She did this several hundred times in a microsecond, putting her god like speed to full use.

When she was done toying around with her claws, she noticed that Scion was once again whole and glaring at her. He was simultaneously using a forcefield to stop her from hitting him again, and using an annihilation blast in one hand, about to fire it at her.

She smirked.

The black and white beam of death screamed through the air and hit Taylor in the left side of her chest, completely destroying her heart and everything in front of and behind it.

It healed in seconds. She thanked Scion's own regeneration, even if only at one fifth the power, for that.

She even managed to use a small amount of Parian's power to regrow the cloth. Then she cut her eyes to the golden man.

"My turn."

She broke through his shield like it wasn't even there, placed her hand inside his chest, and pumped him so full of energy that his body started to bloat from it. Then, putting her claws to her forehead, she teleported him to the other side of the universe.

A thousand years from that moment, the light of the hyper massive explosion would eventually reach earth.

"That was a little much, don't you think? I mean, just to temporarily destroy his proxy body?" Lisa said, floating up to be near the young woman she thought she had lost for the briefest of moments.

"Venting," Taylor said, her tone retaining some of the tiger's growl, coming off quite sultry, "How do we kill it?"

"I don't know, but I do know we have to get to his real body. You do too," the villainess said.

"I believe I can be of assistance," Alexandria said.

The two turned to her, and simply waited for the woman to continue.

"I have an aquaintance who can make portals to other dimensions," the woman told the two of them, "We can open a door to one of the worlds that Scion likes to reside in."

"Do it," Saiyan commanded.

"Door, Scion's Sanctuary."

A glowing portal of light opened unto an earth like never before seen. The plants writhed, the sky shifted, the winds howled. The air was stale, but breathable, and smelled of some horrible alien musk.

Alexandria pointed skyward, "There, that's him."

What she pointed to was the sky itself.

It was then that the two younger women realized that the sky wasn't shifting, it was the incomprehensibly large lifeform that was the true Scion, known by his real name of Zion.

"Feel free to break down and have a mental shattering," Saiyan said, glaring up at the monster, "I did."

Lisa looked like she was going through the same thing that Taylor had, so long ago, when her power started telling her so many things that she could not comprehend as a simple, empowered human. Blood started seeping from her nose, then her eyes and ears. If it didn't stop soon, Taylor was going to get her out of here and just do something to end this all that might end up being completely suicidal.

"There was a second one!" Tattletale suddenly said, turning to Alexandria, "What happened to it? Is it waiting in the wings to replace this one?" The hero started to open her mouth but the blonde continued, "No, that's not it. Is she dead?" the blonde nodded, "How did she die? Did you kill it? No? What happened?" This time she actually paused, waiting for the hero to speak.

"She crashed, into several alternate earths."

"Oh, is that all?" Lisa said calmly, then yelled, "Are you fucking kidding me?! How are we supposed to do that? Do you have any kind of idea what kind of force that thing," she pointed at the writhing mass that _was the sky_ , "would create upon colliding with a planetary body?"

Scion, the golden proxy appeared, frowning.

"Great!" Tattletale exclaimed, "Now that's here too!"

Taylor finally spoke, her arms crossed under her chest, glowing with more power every second, "Hold him off, I have a plan."

"Ah, damn it!" The blonde streaked at Scion, blasting him with her _Burning Shot_. It didn't do much, but it gathered his attention for the time being.

"What should I do?" Alexandria asked, knowing she'd only get in the way at this point.

"Get off this planet, but leave the door open," Taylor turned a very unkind smirk at her, "Don't worry, we'll turn out the lights when we leave."

Alexandria didn't even want to guess at the meaning behind those words.

At the same time as the triumvirate hero was leaving through the glowing door, three things were going on at once.

First, feeling that it might be important to record what was going on in the battle with Zion, Director Mother had three of the capes under her command, a Thinker with the ability to see all things at all times, a telepath capable of perfectly reading someone's mind on contact, and an illusionist to whom the telepath projected what he saw, create a simulation of what was going on in that world.

Second, Tattletale was zipping about, keeping anything that Scion, the false body, used from touching her. She couldn't copy powers like Taylor could, so there was no way she'd be taking an annihilation blast to the chest and just walking it off. Luckily, her speed was so far beyond the monster's that it wasn't even funny. With that in mind, other than keeping him from hurting her, she focused on destroying as much of his mass as possible. It wasn't doing anything to his main body in the sky, but it was obviously pissing him off.

Third, Scion once again activated his Path to Victory.

When he used it on the annoying blonde in front of him he was nearly knocked off his feet with the message that came back to him from it.

 **Nope.**

For the first time in history, Scion/Zion had a thought that a human mind could properly interpret.

 _The fuck? No, seriously. What the actual fuck?_ He tried it again.

 **Nope.**

He frowned, backing off from the blonde, deciding instead to target the other one, the one he instinctively knew to be the bigger threat. It was unlikely that he would receive the same answer about her. It would also prove that it wasn't malfunctioning or being blocked in some way.

He focused his gazes, that of his proxy and one of his real eyes, on the animalistic girl.

 **Oh, snap! You done fucked up, son! Fuck this shit, I'm out.**

Scion nearly fell out of the air and Zion roared in pain as the shard that gave him his Full Path to Victory actually _removed itself_ , and darted through dimensions to get away.

Luckily, he was able to recover in time for his murder.

"Tattletale," Taylor said, suddenly existing next to the blonde girl.

"Yes?" she looked up at the much taller girl.

"You should go now. I'll see you at my house for dinner."

The blonde didn't even bother to argue, just moving through the portal at speeds that anyone else couldn't track.

"First, let's see all of you," grasping four of Zion's dimensional travel abilities, she focused them all on him and with a grunt of effort, pulled the full mass of his gigantic body into this reality, then locked it in. She could feel the tendrils of his power trying to shut her's down. She destroyed them without having to pay full attention to it.

"Next, let's get you dead," She reached out with her hand and raked it slowly through the air, appearing to do nothing of consequence.

However, if you could see things from space, more than one would believe was happening.

From the very edge of the solar system, Pluto streaked in, glowing with the red of Taylor's Chi. It smacked into Zion, causing an explosion so massive that the human mind can't understand it.

It wasn't quite enough to kill the space whale, but she had never figured it would be. She pulled out her other hand, and raked it through the air as well.

Pluto was meant to stun it. _Jupiter_ was going to be its taxi. The giant planet, that was only a few planetary masses short of becoming a brown dwarf, swiped by this alternate earth slamming into Zion and pulling him along like a bullet train hitting an old mac truck.

It then continued on its way, barreling into the sun, far off in the distance. Behind it, every single planet except for this alternate earth followed along.

Taylor watch with her Chi sense, pushed to the very edge of her limits, as the monster was burned and crushed an exploded as it was slammed into the star, then struck over and over again by the planets that were streaking in, one after another.

The whole thing took a total of thirty seven seconds.

In thirty seven seconds, Taylor had used an entire solar system, minus one planet, to kill an edlritch abomination.

She could see it when he died, when all of his shards spread themselves across the multiverse.

She frowned, looking down at her hands as she felt the star flicker and start to destabilize. She might have to go after those shards at some point. The sun wobbled then exploded. Thoughts for another time.

Taylor moved through the portal, the energy that gave her the power to kill a god leaving her.

-9001-

Yup. I just killed Scion/Zion with a solar system.

Power Levels!

Zion- 380,000/ 40,000,0000

Lisa-214,467,902

Taylor- WTF?!

Please Enjoy.


	15. Chapter 15 The New Goddess of The Hunt

Honestly, I think I could stretch this out a bit. make it last a few more chapters…

But I won't.

Maybe someday I will do an in depth, more than slightly altered rewrite. Until then, this is the last chapter.

Also I would like to point out and congratulate the Guest Reviewer, **Peon** , for being my three hundredth reviewer. I only point that review out for its benchmark, but all of your reviews are highly appreciated. Never think that your opinion doesn't matter to the author. Your opinion, after all, is why we post here.

 _ **Thank you for reading!**_

Chapter Fifteen: The New Goddess of the Hunt

Twenty seven minutes after the death of Zion, Taylor and Lisa were in the Hebert kitchen. It had been destroyed, utterly, when they first arrived. All the way down to the bedrock. Littered with the blood of fallen heroes, villains, rogues, and civilians that couldn't get out of the way in time. They actually found a severed hand in the middle of it all, crawling along, slowly regenerating into a human being with lime green skin. Taylor didn't recognize that descriptor at all, so it could have been a new cape. They quickly delivered the arm to the PRT then returned to the ruined home.

"I'll be back," Taylor had said in monotone to Lisa. THe next thing that the ultimately powerful blonde knew, her lover was moving so fast that she was leaving behind flickering doubles. Thirty of them, all told. A paltry trick that Lisa could use herself, even before she had entered the Time chamber.

Still, it was impressive to watch the woman work at hypersonic speeds to rebuild her old family home. It was perfectly restored in just under three minutes, all the way down to the rickety back step. She then filled it with homemade furniture, pots and pans, even melted sand for the glass necessary to make the plates.

Thirty seconds later, the seven foot tall amazon stood next to Lisa, looking up at the place she had lived all her life- the replica at least- and had nothing in her eyes. No emotion at all. She might have been dead, for all anyone could tell from looking, were it not for the rise and fall of her chest.

She proceeded to lead the blonde inside, right to the kitchen, pulling cooking supplies out of the fridge and cabinets.

Lisa watched it all, silent as her better half, waiting for the other shoe to drop. She couldn't help but notice the things that had remained after that otherworldly transformation had dissipated. For one, the height. A girl that was already abnormally tall, now broke records. Maybe not world records, but certainly local. The second was the tiger's tail, lacking the spikes now, that swished back and forth, still sticking out of the back of her pants.

Third were the claws she was extending and cutting the meat she was preparing with.

For ten minutes, Lisa let the other girl just stew in her roiling emotions. She tried to let her come to terms with what happened. All of it.

"Are you okay?" she finally asked, almost wincing with the stupidity of her question. If her own hyper intuitive power was a person, it would have smacked her across the face with a railroad track.

"Nope," Taylor answered immediately.

She proceeded to scream so loud and so long that the windows she'd just made shattered.

It was filled with rage and grief, mourning and fear. She didn't power it with her Ki or Chi, not wanting to accidentally destroy what was left of her city, but it was enough on its own.

She screamed and screamed and screamed and _screamed._ She hunched forward letting her sonic emotional vent aim directly at the floor, though it did nothing to lessen the volume. Her entire body was clenched tightly, the veins in her head visibly pulsing.

Ignoring the now constant ringing in her ears, Lisa approached the most powerful to have ever existed on their planet. Even as she did so, the scream began to die out and recede into shuddering, full body sobs. The blonde pulled her into her embrace, not saying anything, just rubbing her back and letting her cry.

There was nothing else she could do. There was nothing to say that made losing one of the only two people who ever loved you, just for existing, okay, and the last one at that.

Lisa had no preconceived notion that she would be even half as interested in Taylor if it weren't for the abilities the much taller girl had awakened in her.

That said, nothing would stop her from being there for the brunette at this point in time.

-9001-

"How did you do it?" Director Mother asked Taylor. They were meeting face to face for the first time, simply so they could find out, A, how much a threat the girl was, B, what they needed to do the next time an entity showed up on their doorstep

"I hit him with eight planets and a start at between ten sixty times the speed of light, destroying him and an entire solar system, or two, in the process," the girl said absently, more focused on the room around her than she was on the conversation she was having.

"What?"

"That…" Contessa began, keeping her gaze precisely away from the amazon in their midst, "would work. Accord to my extrapolations." Her shards power grew, immensely, when Scion died. To be honest, it had fused with the Perfect Path shard, and it was telling her, from experience, not to turn her power on the young woman before her. Not, that is, if she didn't want to die of an embolism.

"Wonderful," the aged woman said in a dry tone, conveying none of the excitement another pwerson would have felt, "We don't have technology like that, Tinker Tech or otherwise, capable of something similar. Will we be able to count on you in the future, should another 'Space Whale'," the way she said it seemed to imply she found the classification distasteful, but was using it to appease their guest, "appear?"

"I'm doing a press release in an hour. You'll know what's next then," she put her fingers to her forehead, then stopped, "Oh, that's a useful one. Yoink!" she then put her hand to the side and opened a portal on her own, "Oh, and the name," she almost smirked, "It's not Saiyan anymore…"

-9001-

Standing in front of tens of cameras and microphones, Taylor was now in a black leather trench coat, a black shirt, white pants and black boots. She wasn't wearing a mask and the only thing that was reminiscent of her old cape costume was the butterfly sigil on the back of the trench coat.

"I am here to announce my retirement from the Wards," she said into the microphones, "After the attack from Scion, losing heroes like Dauntless, Aegis, Eidolon, and Armsmaster, to name only fraction of the bright souls that were trying to make this a better place, I feel that my time would be better spent hunting down any other creatures like Scion that may be out there," she pointed to the sky, "As I will no longer be here, I have decided to also announce my real name, and my new title."

That sent a wave of responses through the crowd of reporters, but it all stopped when she flared her energy into the visible spectrum.

"My name is Taylor Hebert," her voice was heard and translated the world round, "But you can call me Artemis."

"Uh, Miss Hebert," One reporter said, "There's already a cape with that name in Montana."

"Can she kill multidimensional space whales posing as golden people by throwing entire solar systems at them? And if so, will she be going on a quest to actively hunt them all down until there are none left the beleaguer another world as they have done so to ours?"

"Uh…"

"I thought not. I am Artemis. She can get her name changed. Any other questions?" Taylor then pointed out a man in the audience with his hand raised, "Yes, you."

"How many of these 'Space Whales' are there, Artemis?" he was obviously using her new, self granted title to try and get on her good side, "I mean, what kind of force are we looking at that you'll be facing?"

"I dunno," she shrugged, "It could be two, or nine, or over nine thousand. It doesn't matter. I'm going to find them all. I'm going to kill them all. This is not a goal, or a desire. This is fact. The only thing that will stay my hand is if I find one that's not fucking over a planet in several realities at once."

"When are you leaving on this hunt?" another one asked.

"Soon as my ride gets here."

Even as she spoke, the air to her side rippled with movement and Lisa appeared. Her wardrobe had changed as well. Instead of the purple cat suit and the mask, she was wearing a leather battle skirt and corset combo, with greco-roman sandals on her feet and silver bracers on her arm. At her side was a sword and on her back, a shield.

Most shocking change of all though, was the large, fluffy fox tail coming out of her spine, just above her butt.

"This is Athena. She will be coming with me," Taylor introduce Lisa by her new moniker as well, "Goodbye, and good luck."

She opened a portal, the two of them stepped through it, and no person on Earth Bet ever saw the two of them again.

The End.

-9001-

I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did.

Between now and whenever the mood strikes me, I will post an epilogue. It will give brief look into what the two of them do after leaving Earth Bet.

Please Enjoy


	16. Chapter One: Level One

**The Rewrite of Levels starts now!**

I have decided, rather than add another story file to my too long list of incomplete adventures, I will simply add this on to the one it pertains to anyway.

I know that some of you have been eagerly awaiting this day. I know that an equal number, if not more, have been dreading it. Well, You can all thank the gentleman that left the following review:

 **damn i thought this was the other Taylor/DBZ corss.. yours is the one where Tattletale ends up with her Taylors power plus her own (but somehow is just slightly behind Taylor at all times..because Taylor started first...weakest plot devise ever)...after you make her act all crazy and then Taylor ends up pathetic and all of that on top of your complete uninterest in adding any form of detail to your story... You like you boring pointless dialog shoved into a bare outline form, with weak fights thrown in..no passion, no creativity, no DEPTH! Read a damn book before you write! NOONE WRITES THIS WAY FOR A REASON!**

This wonderful review, that the reviewer took precious time out of their day to write specifically for me, was left by a guest, so I can not thank them by name- screen name, that is- for inspiring me to continue.

Before I begin with this, allow me to simply say that I love and cherish every single review I receive. Your opinions matter greatly to me and I will always read every single one with a smile on my face and a warmth in my heart.

Now, Please Enjoy!

Chapter One: Level One

Taylor Hebert, teenager, high school student, Strongest Bitch on the Planet.

The tall, skinny girl skipped home merrily after another thrilling day of classes, enjoying the sun shining down, the flowers swaying in the gentle breeze, and the sounds of a happily bustling city.

 _What a load of shit…_

Of course, none of that was true.

Taylor Hebert limped home through the chill wind of a stormy day in a city that was dying of the festering wounds inflicted by Parahumans with too much power and too little moral fiber.

She was beginning to feel that there was no justice in the world. If there was, why would people like Lung have the power to rip a city apart at his own whim? Why would good, normal people be afraid to go out after dark, simply because their skin wasn't the right color? Why would those who genuinely wanted to help be left with piddling little powers barely capable of being considered a special skill, let alone a world changing ability?

You see, Taylor was special. She was a Parahuman. She, however, was nothing like Lung, Alexandria, or any number of others who were gifted with the power to rock the world when they were roused. She was special. She just wasn't _that_ special.

The skinny girl continued limping home, trying to get her pain under control enough that her father wouldn't notice she favored her left leg when he got home. Her eyes followed the movement of the people coming and going around her, breaking down every motion, down to the very last detail, and making a startlingly accurate prediction about what they would do next.

The woman to standing outside of a flower shop was speaking into a cell phone, her hand was moving upwards. Taylor knew that she was going to brush her blonde hair behind her ear and then check her eyebrows. She would be able to copy the motion perfectly, should she wish to, but there was no point.

 _Fucking figures…_ her thoughts echoed in her mind like a howling wind, cutting deeper into her damaged psyche, _I trigger and get the ability to copy signatures. Useful for getting out of detention and going to prison for forgery later in life._ She huffed angrily, and moved quicker, keeping her head down.

Earlier that day, she had been walking down the hall, trying to keep from staring at the other students and attracting attention, but the sound of Sophia's snicker was enough to get her to look up.

The black track star was moving right towards Taylor, Madison Clements and Emma Barnes watching intently, a smirk on her face. The skinny girl's perception of time dilated, as it always did when she used her ability to it's peak, and she could see exactly what would happen next.

The muscles in Sophia's left leg were tensing in a particular fashion that indicated a swift forward kick. The kick would hit Taylor's shin with just enough force to be extremely painful, and to leave a nasty bruise, but would make it look like her victim had simply tripped and hurt herself.

Taylor could see, in perfect detail, that if she moved six inches to the left, Sophia would kick the knee of the person behind her. She could also see that she didn't have the necessary speed to do anything aside from falling to the left rather than forward.

"Fucking bitch," she muttered under her breath as she very carefully navigated the steps on her porch to keep from aggravating her minor injury.

The girl didn't bother to do anything aside from step into the living room after hanging up her coat and pour her homework out onto the coffee table in the living room. She sighed deeply as she looked at the assignments and make up assignments she was supposed to complete before the weekend was out.

She picked up the worksheet from the class that was attended- not taught- by one Jeremy Gladly. Mister G to his students. The only member of the faculty at Winslow High School she hated more than the apathetic bitch of a secretary.

She tore up the assignment and shoved the pieces back into her book bag, no intention of seeing them again until she had to dump it out again on Monday evening.

Instead of starting work on anything else, she organised it, then turned on the television. The household income, such as it was, was insufficient for a decent internet connection. It was hardly enough for the basic cable package that she was making use of.

The first thing that came on was a live action movie, based on an anime called Dragon Ball Z. The plot, she was told by her father in one of his rare shows of passionate emotion since her mother's death, was a crime against the source material. Taylor didn't particularly care about any of that. She thought the guy in the lead role was rather attractive, and she felt for him, having to deal with bullies of his own.

She sat back on the couch, preparing to simply enjoy the eye candy, even if it wasn't a movie she would normally watch, when her ability kicked on without her say so.

Goku, called Geeko by his bullies, was dodging his tormentors. It happened in slow motion to her, her ability predicting every minute motion that was to follow based on everything that had happened so far, ingraining the motion into her very muscles.

Geeko dodged and weaved, tricking the other boys into beating one another up, then confounding their leader into destroying his own car. The bullied boy never even laid a hand on his aggressors, and still they were all down for the count.

Taylor just sighed, hating that her power, weak as it was, wasn't even fully under her control. She didn't want to know any of that, any of the fine details of that choreographed fight scene, but it made her learn it anyway.

So depressed was she that, before it could get any deeper into the plot, dealing with ki blasts and monsters and Dragon Balls, she turned it off and went into the kitchen to prepare dinner.

By the time her dad got home, she was halfway through a plate of pasta.

"Hey there, Kiddo," he said to her, "How was your day?" If it had been a month ago, it wouldn't have been asked with any real interest. They had mutually alienated one another since the death of Annette-Rose Hebert that it was almost shocking that they still made the effort to eat meals together.

After the locker, however, he had become generally, annoyingly invested in her daily struggle. She still didn't let him in on any of the secret campaign against her, doing her best to convince him that the locker had been the end of it, but he still persisted, wanting to know of anything was wrong.

"Been better. Mister Gladly is still an incompetent dandy that insists he's fully accredited, but other than that it was okay," she shrugged, standing up to plate some food for her father.

Unfortunately she put too much weight on her left leg and limped heavily.

"Whoa! Are you okay, Taylor?" The man was up to his feet quicker than she could have ever guessed he could be, "What happened?" he demanded.

"It's nothing," the girl said, waving away his concern, "I stubbed my toe earlier, that's all."

"Really?" he asked slowly, still standing and looking her in the eye.

"Yeah," she lied easily, "I bumped it pretty hard on the coffee table just a little while ago. It won't even be a memory tomorrow."

"Ouch," he nodded, commiserating.

"Tell me about it," she set the plate for him, making a concerted effort not to trip again.

They lapsed into silence after that, only the sound of their eating filling the air.

After a minute, though, the sound began to disgust the teenager. The squishy sound of chewing, the screeching of metal forks across the ceramic plates, the subtle glug and gurgle of liquid sliding down Danny Hebert's throat every time he took a drink of his beer. It all became too much for the girl.

Normally, she might turn on the radio. Right then, it was on the counter to the right of the stove and she would have to get up to turn it on, causing more pain in her leg. Instead, she decided to talk to the man before her.

But about what? What could they possibly talk about? She was vaguely aware of his position as the manager of the Dock Worker's Association, and that he was having a hard time drudging up work for his boys. Bringing that up might bring down the mood. There was no way she was going to say anything more about her day and accidentally give away any of the details that she was keeping to herself.

That left only one topic of conversation.

"So, I watched that Dragon Ball Evolution movie, today," she said, watching as his eyes lit up at 'Dragon Ball' and chilled to ice when she added 'Evolution', "It really wasn't so bad, what little I saw of it. I think you might have judged it a little harshly." She didn't say that the only reason she liked it so far was the fact that the main character was cute.

"That is unacceptable," the man said simply before standing up from the table and leaving the dining room.

Taylor sighed, heavily. _Trust me to fuck up something as simple as talking to my dad._ She tried to ignore the prickling sensation at the corners of her eyes that foretold of unwanted tears. She picked up her plate and started to stand up to go do the dishes when her father's voice came from the living room.

"Taylor, come here," he said, not quite sternly, "It's time, I think, we gave you a proper education."

That had the girl frowning. She walked into the living room, expecting a scowl of some kind, probably ready to talk about the deficit on her last report card and enforce some new, pointless rules about her work ethic.

What she got was the tall, slightly balding, equally skinny man standing there with a DVD box set that read 'DRAGON BALL' on one side in his hand and a soft smile on his face.

"Lesson one," he said, sounding serious, but still smiling, "This is Dragon Ball. This is a masterpiece. This," he held up an unopened DVD of Dragon Ball Evolution, "is an _abomination._ Come sit on the couch. We can squeak in a few episodes before I'm too tired to stay up anymore."

Taylor, not quite sure how to react, moved to sit down on the couch, her dad joining her, after retrieving a couple of pudding cups and a pair of spoons for them to snack on. He hit play and the anime began, telling the story of a young boy with a monkey tail who grew up in the mountains, far from civilization.

Taylor was suffering from depression, lack of self esteem, paranoia and a host of other problem, only some of them physical.

You wouldn't be able to tell that, by listening to the two surviving members of the Hebert household laugh, sometimes uproariously, to the Japanese cartoon that had shaped a generation.

Three episodes in, Taylor was leaning against her father's side, his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Five and she had retrieved another pair of pudding cups for the both of them.

Seven in and Danny had finally succumbed to his exhaustion. Taylor turned off the TV before the next episode, something about the Kamehameha Wave, could start. She had a smile on her face as she looked at the DVD box. That was the most fun she'd had in two years. She hoped they could do this again, soon.

+-9002-+

And thus begins a somewhat different tale of Taylor becoming the best there ever was.

Power Levels!

Taylor- 3

Danny- 12

Sophia- 30

Emma- 7

Madison- 4


	17. Chapter 2: Power Up!

As I have decided to rewrite this story, I have decided it needs a new title. Officially, it will simply remain _Levels_. Unofficially, the rewrite will be called _Level Up_.

And with a new title comes a new disclaimer.

I do not own Worm, or any other anime, videogame, comic, book, movie, or cursive urine snow signatures that may appear.

Now, there were several questions asked when I posted the first chapter of this reincarnation of _Levels_. Allow me to answer them all, right now, in sequence:

Yes.

 **Chapter Two: Sequential Extension of Existential Examination**

The next morning, just after breakfast, Danny Hebert was just getting up from the dining room table to go to work when Taylor spoke.

"Can we do that again?"

"What?" the man asked, stopping to look at her, "Do what again, Kiddo?"

"Watch cartoons together," she said, looking him in the eye with a nervous smile, "I really liked it, yesterday, watching Dragon Ball with you. Can we do it again?"

For a moment, Danny didn't know how to react for a moment, looking at the nervous, hopeful smile of his daughter. Last night aside, this was the first time he'd seen his daughter smiling in months. Maybe more than a year.

"Well, yes, I guess so," he nodded with a small smile of his own, "I can't watch it every night, though. We might only be able to do so on the weekends."

"That's okay, it was just… it was just a lot of fun," her smile had gone from nervous to bright.

"Right then, I'm home all day tomorrow. Would you like to watch Dragon Ball and a couple others, then?"

"Sure," she nodded with a big grin, "What others?"

"Well," his smiled dropped in a small way, something that indicated something about Annette, "One was Her favorite, the other I used to enjoy as a younger man."

"Oh," the teen nodded, agreeing silently, "That sounds good. I'll get my homework out of the way today so we can do that."

"Alright, Kiddo," the man smiled, "It's a plan." He ruffled her hair as he passed, earning a groan, but a genuine smile, from Taylor.

Taylor was as good as her word, finishing her homework before noon. All except for one that was currently in pieces at the bottom of her book bag.

Doing the schoolwork was a mindless activity, and quite quickly, the skinny girl's thoughts wandered away into a more explorative territory.

Being able to see, intimately understand and replicate every motion she was anatomically capable of was interesting. Useless so far, but interesting. The really interesting part was the fact that her ability had worked on the cartoon last night. She was able to break down each of the character's movements. She couldn't do any of it. Her ability told her, in great detail, about how she wasn't strong enough, quick enough to do any of the awesome, extreme stunts that were seen in the show.

But she could be.

It would take a lot strength and agility training, but she could do those things. Well, most of them. Throwing cars? Not so much. Kick hard enough to knock down a mountainous tiger man? Apparently not outside the scope of possibility.

None of it was really all that interesting though. Pushing rocks, taking hard hits with little damage, nothing the average Brute couldn't do.

In other words, things _she_ could never achieve. Maybe there would be some real martial arts stuff in some of the later episodes.

Because Taylor had made a decision. Her power had no immediate benefit in a fight against a really strong and fast cape, let alone something like the Endbringers. That didn't mean that there was nothing she could do with her ability to see and copy motion.

Her first thought, as one might have noticed, had been copying signatures. That was, of course, illegal, and she'd prefer not to be labeled a villain. A secondary Use she thought of was perhaps using her ability to master martial arts simply by watching videos, get her physical fitness up to level, then run about, stopping street crime.

That one was a really close second to her eventual goal. The path she had decided on, eventually, was martial arts instructor to the PRT. That would allow her to do the most good and gave her years of preparation before she signed up with them.

Taylor figured that, honestly, her ability would allow her to have an enhanced teaching ability, what with being able to intimately see what they were doing wrong and being able to instruct them accordingly on how to do it better.

The start, however, would be getting herself in shape so she could use the techniques she saw. So, with that in mind, she finished up her homework and headed out to the library. Time to look up fitness techniques and start gathering styles.

It would amaze you to find out that it takes more than a couple videos on a media site to master any single martial art. Even for Taylor that was a little outside of the ball park. It took three hours to learn one style, called Wing Chun, from beginner to master level. That was back to back with only bathroom breaks.

As she had guessed, even with her ability this would take a long, _long_ time. Good thing she planned on getting better over the course of years, not days, or even weeks.

The only other thing she looked up while at the library was a series of Body Weight fitness regimes.

Taylor Anne Hebert wasn't horribly out of shape, not really. But she did have a bit of pudge around the middle. She was also kind of weak when it came to her physical strength. Both of those were, while not easy, simple to remedy.

After memorising the appropriate movements, the girl went home and began her new fitness routine with slow sit ups. This was immediately followed by push ups, squats and several other techniques. She had barely been doing it for twenty minutes and already it felt like her body was tied to lead weights and achey all over.

She kept at it until the routine was over, though, dedicated to improving herself so that she could, in some small way, help the world.

When her father got home, she was starving and could hardly wait to eat, even if her movements were a little shaky and sluggish.

"You okay there, Kiddo?" Danny asked of his darling girl.

"Yeah," Taylor nodded, "I started working out today. Tough stuff."

"Oh," he nodded, going back to eating.

The silence was not as oppressive this time, the sound of the radio drifting lightly over their meal. It also was not as cold as usual between the two of them. The day before, watching Dragon Ball, had changed the dynamic of their relationship. Improved it.

They weren't talking then, not because they didn't know what to say to one another, but instead because they were comfortable with each other.

That night they watched a few more episodes of Dragon Ball. Her ability tried to kick on for a moment when Old Master Roshi used the Kamehameha Wave, but it must have been lacking the details necessary for it to activate and teach her how to use it.

 _Too bad,_ she mourned the missed chance silently, _Would have been cool to use that on the bad guys out there._

The two of them were only able to watch a few more episodes before her father recognized that he was too tired to continue. Danny bid Taylor goodnight and shuffled off to his bedroom, yawning as he ascended the stairs.

Taylor put the dvds away and went to bed herself, soon after, only taking the time to sketch out how long it would take her to get into the proper shape to use her martial skills. She figured that, if she continued to work out diligently, she would attain an acceptable level somewhere around March.

+-9003-+

The next morning, Danny had already loaded up another anime dvd, this box set saying POKE`MON on the side in blue outlined yellow lettering.

It wasn't eight minutes in before Taylor said to her dad, "That little electric rat is an asshole."

"Language," the man warned her, then, "Yes. But he grows up by episode two."

The girl shrugged, watching the cartoon, content to spend this time with her dad.

Taylor laughed at Team Rocket's antics, really laughed at Ash's… unique imagination, and almost cried when the boy nearly gave up his Pikachu to the forest dwelling pack of the critters.

It wasn't until the episode where Brock beat Ash the first time using ground type Pokemon, and the boy in turn tried to supercharge his Pikachu, that her jaw dropped.

Ash, idiot that he was, figured that it would be perfectly acceptable to fight ground type Pokemon, which were completely one hundred percent immune to electrical effects, with an electric type Pokemon.

Rather than listen to the advice of his peer, a water type master aspirant named Misty, whom offered to let him borrow one of her critters, the boy sought a way to improve the power of his Pikachu so that it would work.

Despite the idiocy of this plan, a man agreed to help the mentally challenged trainer by hooking his Pikachu up to a water powered generator. Just as this was happening, the animators had the brilliant idea to show the inner workings of the electric sacks in the creatures cheeks. More than that, her power dilated time. It analyzed every motion, frame by frame, and informed her, in no uncertain terms, that Taylor was equally capable of using electricity.

"Taylor?" Danny inquire when his daughter suddenly sat up, ramrod straight.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," she said, looking away from the screen and down at her hands.

"Language," the man warned, a little more stern than earlier, "What's wrong?"

"Dad," she hit the pause button and turned to face her father, "I'm a Parahuman."

"Taylor, wha-"

"Pikachu!" she shouted, not quite at the top of her lungs, but projecting quite loudly. On the third syllable, yellow tinged electricity arched out of Taylor's left hand, into her right.

Danny, understandably, was left speechless.

"Like I said," she grinned, her too wide mouth giving her a beautifully large smile, "I'm a Parahuman."

+-9003-+

Yup.

Power Levels!

Taylor- 15

Danny- 12


	18. Chapter 3: Hero Villain Rogue

So, now, I really will answer one question from the first chapter because, in reality, I don't think it will ever be explained in detail in the story itself.

The gist of the question was why do the people I've listed so far have the power levels that they do?

According to DBZ episode one, an adult farmer had a power level of Five. There are a lot of theories on why it was that low, but for this story just know that the average, untrained adult has a power level from four to eight, this fully depends on their fitness level and body shape. Danny, even though he's skinny, was trained as a boxer( _ **Not Canon! Creative License used!**_ ), thereby giving him a higher threat rating than others.

Now you might look at that and think, 'Gee, Why does some vague boxing training from twenty or so years ago make Danny twice as strong as the average person?'

It doesn't work that way. Twelve is twice as strong as six, but that doesn't mean that two people with a level of four couldn't team up and take him down. Power level is a number given to show someone's _potential_ threat level. Even as they introduced the power levels, Goku and Piccolo showed they were unreliable at best because Goku's shot up to twenty two hundred when he used the Kamehameha, but other than that it stayed at somewhere under a thousand.

The numbers themself are completely given up after Frieza's second transformation- for good reason in my opinion- but it was an interesting convention while it lasted and, in this more detailed and slower moving version of Levels, I intend to explore how much difference there really is in the numbers for each individual and what they mean.

Attached to that question was whether or not Parahuman abilities affect PL. The short answer is yes. The long answer is, yes, but it varies depending on the ability. Shadowstalker's training _plus_ her ability rank her a thirty. Armsmaster's training alone would net him a forty five. He would be boosted to one hundred ten if his tech could be read as having a Power Level. Taylor get's boosted by six after gaining the power of Pikachu and another six by mastering a martial art, without having the physical strength to use it. But that can, and will, improve with the more training and physical fitness she gets, in conjunction with other abilities she can copy. Until then, she'll get diminishing returns.

And I will state right now, Taylor's Manton Limit prevents her from copying other Parahuman abilities. _If_ she second triggers, this will not change. This is a wide step away from what the last one was, plot wise, and I'm doing so minutely with the power as well.

Chapter Three: Hero. Villain. Rogue.

Danny stared at his daughter, mouth agape. How does one react when they find out that, A, their daughter is a parahuman, B, she's apparently a Pikachu?

Taylor shook her hands, a slight grimace on her face, but it did nothing to diminish the bright smile she sported.

"Feels like my hands went to sleep," she mumbled, "All pins and needles."

"When?" Danny finally uttered.

Taylor blinked for a moment then made the connection, "Well, since the locker, I'm pretty sure. I can…" she tilted her head to one side for a moment before nodding slightly to herself, "I can observe something, a movement, then I can copy it. I can also, very slightly, predict how any particular movement will end. Like, I will never be surprised by the outcome of a boxing match, and I'll gain championship boxing skills at the same time."

"Ok, but how did you…" he gestured vaguely at her hands, "Pikachu?"

The grin was back in full force, "Apparently, if I see, intimately, how something is done, I can do it, too. My power has been trying to ping off of that ki stuff in Dragon Ball, but there hasn't been enough detail," she pointed at the TV screen that was still showing the diagram of how a Pikachu channeled electricity, "That. That is just enough detail for my power to fill in the gaps and replicated it."

Danny swallowed hard. He knew of more than a few scenes in the cartoons she wanted to watch with him that would give her a graphic look at the fine details of how to channel Ki, among other things. What would she do then, when she had a force multiplier capable of destroying _galaxies_?

"What are you going to do with it?" he asked.

"It's funny that you should ask," she said, sitting down and looking him in the eye, "If you asked me a month ago, I'd say I want to be a Hero. Now, I don't think so. Don't get me wrong," Taylor said quickly, "I don't want to be a Villain. That just leads to all sorts of trouble I don't need, or want. Both of them do, really.

"I mean, think about it. How many villains, in this city alone, have been put behind bars, permanently? Eight or so, in thirty years? That's… well, weird. I don't get it. I don't _want_ to get it. I don't want to know why they're letting them do what they want. I'm going to trust that they have their reasons. Instead of joining one side, or the other, I'm going to spend then next six to ten years learning every martial art I can, finish my schooling, start keeping fit, and when that's all done, I'm going to offer my services to the PRT and Law Enforcement as a martial instructor. I could do far more good for the world by making sure that those who are _paid_ to stop criminals are better trained for it," she crossed her arms proudly over her chest, "Real heroes don't wear capes and masks, they have badges and uniforms."

"Taylor," Danny said, his eyes shimmering, "You are so brilliant. You never cease to amaze me. You are… You are so much like Annette," he pulled her into a sudden, woodenly awkward hug, "She would be so proud of you. For everything. And so am I."

"Well, that said," she grinned at her father, "I am going to continue finding abilities I can copy," her face grew solemn quickly, "This world is full of incredible threats. Things that the heroes can't, and sometimes just wont, fight against. My abilities, this one and whatever else I can learn, will be used to make sure that I actually survive to my adulthood."

"I understand," the man nodded. He fully agreed with that course of action. Anything that made sure his daughter lived to a ripe old age was a good thing in his book.

"The real question is, what am I going to do, immediately?" the teen said, sitting back on the couch and whispering 'Pikachu' again, causing some electricity to arch between her hands once more.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked.

"I'm being bullied, dad," she said, "It's Sophia and her personal ass lickers, Emma and Madison," her father frowned at that, "Do you have any idea how tempted I am to just shock the ever loving day lights out of them?"

The man nodded along with her, urging for her to continue.

"I've got power now, and I can break them, easily. I… Don't really want to," she shrugged, "I don't want Emma to come back anymore. I'm over that. She's made her bed. She gets to lie in it. I still want them to stop, though," she looked to her father, wondering what she could do, "How do I get away with using my abilities to stop them?"

Danny's face had darkened from the moment that Taylor had mentioned that she was still being bullied and the school was doing nothing about it, still. He had thoughts about what he could do as the de facto leader of the Dock Workers Association. He may not be a bigshot lawyer, or rich, but he had connections. He could have more if he ever decided to accept a bribe. He could make the Hess, Clements and Barnes families disappear, just by turning his head the other way, and mentioning to the right people that they had offended him.

Of course, he didn't even think of saying any of that aloud to his daughter. Dark fantasies were one thing, enacting them an entirely different matter.

Besides, Taylor was asking for ways to make them stop _without_ killing the bullies in question.

While the girl watched, the man seemed to fold in on himself for a few moments, then a smirk cut across his face like a sword leaving its sheath and she almost gulped when he looked at her.

"I have an idea."

+- 9003-+

The Heberts spent the rest of their lazy Sunday watching cartoons and discussing plans. Taylor was able to copy three more martial arts styles from the anime they watched and one sword style.

When she went back to school on Monday, she had a solid plan in place for dealing with her bullies, without ever laying a hand on them.

It started almost as soon as she was in the door, Sophia marching towards her, after checking that none of the faculty were around.

Taylor looked at the track start that was coming at her. Time dilated to a crawl and she suddenly understood the movement of everyone around her. She focused it on Sophia and the predictive part of it kicked in.

The teen grinned inwardly. Last Friday, the reason she was unable to dodge Sophia's kick was because she had only focused on the girl at the last moment. By the time she realized she was going to be kicked, the leg was already moving forward.

Now? Now she was focusing solely on the girl, long before she had started her attack. It allowed her to predict what kind of attack she'd used before the girl herself did.

Sophia, it seemed, planned on giving Hebert a harsh brush to the shoulder.

As Sophia got within five feet of her intended target, she sped up, committing to the blow.

Quick as she could, Taylor crouched down, turning to the side, just outside of the bully's path, and started messing with her shoe laces. Sophia couldn't stop herself in time, and ended up crashing into one of the wannabe Empire Eighty Eight goons.

The skinhead was at least two times Sophia's size, and not in muscle, and had a swastika painted on the side of his neck in permanent ink.

"Watch it, Nigger!" The fat teen barked at her, shoving her back the way she came.

Taylor didn't see what happened next, having moved on, but she heard a meaty thwack and the crunch of bone followed swiftly by the sound of a Neo-Nazi teen crying about his broken nose.

The girl had to hide her smile. That worked out better than she could have hoped. She hadn't even known that guy was behind her.

Of course, that wouldn't be enough to stop the trio from assaulting her, but that was step one.

Step two came during gym class.

"Jesus, look at her," Madison sneered to another flunky, "What guy would touch her?" Her friend snickered, "She's probably so desperate, she'd have to bribe a Merchant with draino just to get a taste."

Standing under the shower head, naked as the day she was born and seemingly unashamed, with her hands on her hips, not covering a single part of her body, Taylor spoke, "Gee, Madison," she said loud enough for the rest of the locker room to hear, "You seem to spend a lot of time thinking about me naked. Is there something I should know?" there were gasps from the locker room, then more laughter, not uproarious, but laughter none the less, "Because, I've got to tell you, I'm only interested in men, not boys," there was another, more noticeable, gasp at that. The implication was clear.

Sophia was built like a track runner, so it was fortunate that she became one, and was rather attractive. Emma was stacked like a model at fourteen years old and was only getting better as she got older. Taylor was, tall, skinny and flat chested, but still obviously a girl.

Madison was small, petite, cute. Boyish.

She loved using her cuteness to her own advantage, getting out of trouble with little effort. She hated how close to a young boy she looked.

And Taylor had just said, aloud, that she thought the girl was a little boy.

"Shut up!" The girl almost screamed.

"Oh, pierce mine heart," Taylor said, placing her hands over her chest, "I am cast all asunder, brought low by thine cutting wit! Woe is me, insulted so!" she turned off the shower head, hearing a cacophony of snorted laughter, and proceeded to dry off, not looking after Madison storming away with an ugly frown on her cute face.

The day was only half over and it was going brilliantly so far.

It wasn't until just after Mister Gladly's class that things started getting real. Emma, Madison, and Sophia, with a half dozen of their lackeys cornered her in the nearly barren halways. Taylor had been reading the handbook for Cape Based Laws, and had almost been yanked off her feet when Sophia grabbed her by the backpack and threw her at the wall. Taylor managed to turn around and face them before she hit, thus mitigating the damages, but it had still knocked the air out of her lungs.

Then it began. A wave of insults and digs, themed and contradictory. They attacked her femininity, her hair, her complexion and her face with negative comments. For a year and a half, she had been dealing with this and it always hurt. The pain was stymied, this time, by the knowledge that she was better than all of them would ever hope to be, but it was still painful to hear. She ignored the commentary on her sexual promiscuity, not caring if any of the boys in _this_ school heard them. She wouldn't date anything in this school, even if her life depended on it. She didn't care if they thought she was a slut, she knew she wasn't.

"What's wrong Taylor?" Emma said, causing the others to pipe down. Sophia and Madison were already grinning maliciously. "No, smart comments? Or didn't Mommy teach you how to talk?"

Taylor turned her head, her eyes closed with the effort to fight of the anxious feeling she got. That could only be the first part of this.

"Oh"! Sophia stage whispered, "She's gonna cry!"

"Huh? That was all it took?" Emma almost sighed, "No wonder Annette went and got herself killed? I'd be too ashamed of you to live, if you were my daughter?"

And there it was. Taylor took a deep, shuddering breath. Of course that bitch would use her secret insecurities as weapons. Since her mother's death she had always feared that she wouldn't be proud of how she was dealing with her problems. Her mother would, surely, have done something to stop them by now.

Her brow furrowed into a fierce scowl and she fought back the tears with a nova force rage. When she opened her eyes and looked at Emma, the redheaded teen almost gasped.

Taylor took another slow, deep breath through her nose. She inhaled every bit of air her lungs could possibly contain.

Then she _**screamed**_.

It was so sudden and unexpected that some of the girls before her also screamed briefly. Sophia hopped almost a foot in the air before she took a fighting stance for a moment. Emma and Madison had their hands over their ears.

Taylor put everything into that scream. Her sadness and depression, her anger, her fear, her anxiety. Every negative emotion she had felt since Emma betrayed her.

Her scream cracked the windows nearest her.

And, more importantly, it attracted attention. In three seconds flat, Teachers and students were flooding into the hallway to see what was going on.

Her scream had ended by the time Gladly had pushed his way to the front of the group and Taylor had moved forward and embraced Emma, almost sobbing into her shoulder.

Emma almost pushed her way, but stopped herself, considering there were so many witnesses.

She felt something clatter to the ground and saw a shiv, drop behind Taylor.

"What the hell is going on!?" Gladly demanded.

Taylor pulled away from the other girl and looked at the teacher with teary eyes, "Somebody tried to attack me, Mister Gladly!"

The man frowned, and began to say, "Taylor, Sophia-"

"No!" she all but yelled at him, "Someone did! But Sophia, Emma, everyone! They chased him away!" she looked at all of the redhead's friends and lunkies, "I-I, I don't know what would have happened if they didn't show up! He had a knife, Mister G!" Her eyes teared up again and now she embraced the teacher himself, crying into his shirt.

The man only hesitated for a moment before wrapping one arm around the girl's shoulders and rubbing her back.

"Look!" someone in the crowd said, "A shiv! Someone actually tried to stab Hebert!"

The faculty looked at the ground and saw the makeshift knife and frowns crossed their faces. Now they had to do something, or at least make it look like they were.

"Alright, everyone! Back to class!" Mister Quinlan said loudly, in a no-nonsense tone of voice, "Mister Gladly, please escort Miss Hebert to the Nurse's Office. We'd best call her father as well. This is a very serious matter."

The other teacher nodded and took Taylor down the hall and away from the scene.

"The fuck was that?" Sophia hissed at Emma.

"I don't know," the teen model said, staring after their favorite victim.

One of the teachers picked up the red and purple wrapped knife.

"ABB colors," the gym teacher grumbled, "Probably a rite of passage. Didn't matter who it was, long as the bastard stabbed somebody," the man's words carried through the hallway as he spoke to the other teachers. None of them notice it as one of the junior Nazi's hurried away with the information.

+-9003-+

In the Nurse's Office, Taylor hugged her knees to herself and had her head down. She rocked back and forth occasionally, and a few small sobs escaped her lips.

She should have gotten an Academy Award for this act.

Her dad was coming to pick her up. She couldn't wait to tell him how it went. The shiv had been absolutely perfect.

There was no way that this had ended the bullying, not a chance in hell. But step three was complete. Over the next couple of weeks she'd make sure to tell everyone how Emma, Sophia, and Madison had surely saved her life. She'd have every lunch break spent, hearing whispers about the three heroes and their entourage, willing to step into gang activity to save a fellow student.

Because killing them with kindness was almost as sweet as the idea that the gangs might start taking interest in the troublesome trio, forcing their parents to remove them from the school for their own safety.

Taylor almost giggled, but choked it into a sob. Today was going great.

+-9003-+

Chapter Three End.

Power Levels!

Taylor- 25

Fat E88- 4

Quinlan- 6

Gladly- 5

Gym Teacher(Unnamed)- 10


End file.
